


Last Fate undone

by PurpleMockingbird



Category: Terminator (Movies), Terminator: Dark Fate
Genre: Action, Canon Compliant, Canon Continuation, Cyber terrorist Dani Ramos, F/F, FBI Agent Grace Erikson, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-11-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:33:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 32,126
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22447243
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PurpleMockingbird/pseuds/PurpleMockingbird
Summary: Dani and Sarah set out to stop the future and are successful, even if it means they are dubbed "cyber terrorists". Meanwhile Grace grows up to become an FBI agent.Dani and Graces paths will cross. Are they going to be on opposing sides in this future?
Relationships: Grace Harper/Dani Ramos, Sarah Connor & Dani Ramos
Comments: 82
Kudos: 218





	1. A changed future

Dani goes on to stop the future Grace came from from happening. She didn't know for years if she was successful but when the year 2028 comes around nothing happens. It had been a year that Grace, during her short time with Dani and Sarah, had described as an important milestone in the creation of Legion. Remarkably a lot of things, though, stayed the same – as if it had been fate all along. 

Dani still creates an army. She operates in the shadows and more and more people join her.  
At first it is mainly people who never trusted technology, then come some technicians and scientists, worried with the development of AIs, others are soldiers who had come into contact with the Rev-9 in 2022 or relatives of people who lost their lives back then. Dani inspires them, binds them together by ideology and her clear vision of a worst-case future.  
But Dani doesn’t just create an army, she unwittingly creates her own vocabulary. The news dub her a “cyber terrorist”, which overall doesn’t really make sense because she rarely hacks into anything. More in the traditional sense of the word – Dani blows stuff up. She gives fair warning long before any bomb goes off, but they do eventually all go off. She targets data centers in deserts, research-facilities of grand technology companies and some small start-ups that never realized the electric-fires that burnt their offices were more than an accident. She sets up some of the most brilliant minds in AI development. Here is where the hacking comes into play. She places viruses on their computers, puts incriminating materials of cyber espionage or hackings on them and calls the cops on them. Usually they are out of jail in 2-5 years but aren’t allowed to work with computers ever again. Dani, from the shadows, keeps an eye on each of them and every time they break their probation, they go back to jail. It’s hard work but her network is growing – soon there are affiliates of hers on every continent, in every nation. They collectively inhibit the growth of AI as a market and it becomes less and less attractive to invest in. 

During the year 2030, eight years after she has watched a ten-year old Grace on a playground, happy with her parents, Dani unwillingly searches for a familiar face in crowds, on the street, all around her. She almost expects to run into Grace at random or see her in an dark ally in trouble that she can save her from, but the time never comes. “Not your fate afterall” Dani thinks on New Years and cheerses to herself. Apparently, she has changed the future enough that her and Grace never have to meet. Sarah says she is just pretending to be happy for Grace, that she had after all those years hoped her loyal protector would somehow come back to her, but Dani denies it every single time. What kind of monster would hope for an 18 year old to be abandoned and in need of rescue, just so that a future can play out, that you had been working to destroy anyways. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Grace grows up blissfully ignorant of any danger in a beautiful suburb. She runs track and play basketball on the school team and dreams of becoming a doctor. The bliss of her life holds for another few years, but her father still dies because of a can of peaches. The gas station he had just stopped at to grab his random favorite snack, on his way home from a business trip, is robbed at gun point. The guy who shoots him is never caught. 

Graces dreams change from becoming a doctor to hunting bad guys and protecting the innocent. 

The counsellor at school advises her mother to give Grace an outlet for the incredible anger she holds within, so the teenager starts training in all sorts of martial arts. 

By the time she is 20 in 2032 and has finished college early, she applies to the FBI and is chosen not only because of her incredible martial arts and weapons skills but because of her intelligence and single-minded drive. Topicwise her work at the FBI is as far away as it can be from “cyber terrorism” and AIs. She starts in the robbery unit and graduates to kidnapping, where she rises in the ranks up to the point at which she would have to command a team. Something her superiors would love to see her succeed in but are doubtful she will. Grace isn’t really a team player. Even though she dedicates her whole being to saving and protecting the people she comes across, she is a lone wolf – doesn’t trust a lot of people, doesn’t share information, doesn’t wait for her partners to realize she is on the move, always a few steps ahead, moody and a know-it-all, who inconveniently for her colleagues, really mostly knows it all. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

It is 2036 when Grace is put on the missing persons case of Michael Latemer, a tech-guy from a Silicon Valley start-up, who disappears shortly before presenting his developments to none other than the United States Army itself. Grace is chosen because the USAA is pushing for the best agent to take the case – apparently, they are rather keen on getting whatever the guy has been developing. The name Dani Ramos doesn’t come up in any of the meetings, because her MO doesn’t include targeting specific people, at least to the FBIs knowledge.


	2. Familiar faces

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter follows Grace on her first day during the investigation of the kidnapping of Michael Latemer.

Grace was currently driving to the victims flat, while pondering how she was going to permanently get rid of the young agent her boss had assigned as her partner. He had seemed very eager to work with her, at the task force meeting, during which they were introduced. The task force would consist of mainly analysts and tech support with Grace and whatshisname going into the field. Which is where she was heading now. Nobody had been to the victims flat yet and she hoped to get a better sense of who the man was and by who he could’ve been taken. This was necessary because the only thing she knew about him now was, that he had been taken from outside a diner around 6pm that day and that he and his invention were important to the US-Army. She didn’t love the idea that the FBI built a whole task force, moving heaven and earth to find this guy just because of some military contract, when often enough victims and cases just like this were overlooked and given to local authorities because the person wasn’t important to someone in the higher ranks. 

Grace arrived at the building Latemer lived in at around 11pm. She was making her way from the elevator around the corner to his door, when someone almost bumped into her. Grace looked down at the woman and – if she would describe it with words, she’d say – the eyes she caught, looked like they had seen a ghost. The woman almost stumbled but caught herself and rapidly made her way towards the elevator mumbling a soft “Sorry”.  
Grace didn’t pay the interaction a lot of mind until she made it around the corner and saw the door to Latemers flat was broken open. Not a second passed and Grace was running back the way she came from only catching a glimpse of the woman who was now running towards the stairs at the end of the corridor “Stop right there! FBI!” Grace yelled, pulled her hand gun and made it to the end of the corridor in seconds, pushing through the doors to the staircase and running downstairs taking two steps at a time, only to see black hair whip through the back exit followed by loud crash outside. Grace was at the door a second later, trying to push it open but something had blocked it and by the time she had made her way around the building from the front door nothing but tire tracks was left of the woman. 

She called it in. Forensic analysts were on their way and while Grace was waiting for them, she read up on Michael Latemer and his known female associates – friends, girlfriends, sisters etc. No one matched the description of the woman she saw.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

After the first analysts arrived, she made her way back to the large office space the task force occupied.  
The team gathered around her for instructions. 

“As you might have heard I encountered a woman in Latemers building today. She ran, after I discovered that his flat had been broken into. She got away.” she said a little bitter and continued, “We have to assume she has something to do with his disappearance. Right now, she is our best lead. We’re looking for a woman, between 30 and 40 years old, around 1.55m tall, dark hair, dark eyes, maybe Latina..”

As she rattled off the characteristics of the woman she had seen, something in her mind clicked and screamed at her that she had heard a description like that before. Even though Grace had had nothing to do with the cyber terrorism unit, she, like every other Agent, was briefed on the Most Wanted list the FBI kept, when she started at the bureau. She hadn’t made the connection earlier when she saw the woman but now, it seemed pretty clear. Her team was still looking at her expectantly, since she had stopped talking midsentence. She ignored them and hastily made her way to a computer, pulling up the most wanted list and finding who she was looking for – Daniela, ‘Dani’, Ramos.  
She projected her screen to the big screen in front of the room. “Daniela Ramos – has been on the most wanted list since 2025, when she first blew up a construction site for a web-company in Silicon Valley. It’s her I saw!” 

The team looked at her dumbfoundedly but a middle-aged woman, she remembered introducing herself as Laura Rojas – lead analyst – asked “Are you sure it was her you saw?” 

Grace knew why she asked the question. They were taught about the reason in the academy. ‘Cross race identification bias’ was the technical term which meant people weren’t very good at identifying people of ethnicities that aren’t their own. 

Grace nodded slightly and pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from her pocket, cross-checked it with the screen in front of her and then handed it to Rojas. There, in a rough sketch, very clearly identifiable Dani Ramos was looking back at the agent. Grace had drawn it immediately after she realized she’d lost the woman, because she didn’t want to forget any details that might help in identifying her. Rojas nodded at Grace, and Grace continued “I want a detailed report on everything we have on Daniela Ramos – if possible – more than we already have on her. Try and actually get me a location!” she added grimly “We find her, we find Michael Latemer” and left them to do their work and get herself a cup of coffee.


	3. One up from dying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little insight into where Dani and Sarah have been

Dani was in shock – obviously. 

Thankfully her years of running from the authorities, had basically deleted her freeze reaction when faced with the unexpected. Another skill she had picked up on, during the past 10 years, was spotting law enforcement from a mile away. Around the same time Danis brain had caught up on GRACE being there, it had noted the badge and gun strapped to the womans belt. For a second, she had contemplated waiting to catch another glimpse of Grace but the survival-instinct, first Grace herself, then Sarah had drilled into her convinced her to run – and not a second too late.  
The driver, a trusted soldier who had been her personal security and friend for the past 5 years, waited for her at the back entrance and looked pretty shocked when his commander came running out of the building with a wild look on her face, but he had realized it was time for a speedy exit.

In the car he had tried to find out what happened but all that came from Dani was shallow breathing.

They drove out of the city and into a rural area, ditched the car they were driving for another one and were across state lines within the night.  
Their organization – OPEW (Organization to Prevent the Ending of the WORLD) – as Dani had named it, had cars and safe houses in nearly every tech-city in the US, which made getting away easy. And getting away was something Dani was good at. They had plans in place for extractions of Dani and Sarah and the other key players that had become important to the organization in the past years. Most of the time Dani didn’t even go into cities anymore because her lieutenants were afraid, she would get captured. 

Sarah had retired to a rural cabin in Alaska with a woman called Linda and two loyal soldiers two years ago in 2034. Although “retired” might be the wrong word. The cabin had become the logistical head quarters for OPEW. It seemed fitting that an organization adamant on stopping the development of incredibly powerful technology would choose a place entirely off the grid to manage their operations. They were stealing energy from a nearby mining company and produced their own in a miniature water power plant along a stream. It was enough for the computers their lead software engineer, Linda, needed for the hacks and to communicate with their allies around the globe. The cabin was in the woods, not visible from satellite, only reachable by foot or motor cross. All entries were monitored by the crew of 4 that lived in the cabin and as far as they knew no one in the closest town (which was 30 kilometers away) was the wiser of their existence.

It was Sarahs dream of retirement! No annoying people around, but still in the midst of “the action”. She was in her 70ies now and even though she would have never admitted it, the running was exhausting, so when Dani had suggested finding a rural spot for a headquarters and settling down there, Sarah hadn’t argued…too much. Sarah had made a case for Dani to come live there too, but Dani knew she had to be mobile because she would always be a liability. The authorities were investing manpower into finding her – any place she stayed at would be in potential danger. So, she kept moving and monitoring and recruiting and blowing stuff up, even though she too, was growing more and more exhausted. Back then after they first realized they stopped Legions creation in 2028 she had continued monitoring the market and the key players and hoped no further action on her part would be necessary but only half a year later another developer came up with a concept which was very similar to the one that had originally led to the creation of Legion. And keeping that from happening was what she was still doing today.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

“Grace? Are you absolutely sure?” she heard Sarah ask. The shock palpable in her voice. Dani gripped the phone tighter and even though she knew that Sarah didn’t deserve it, her nerves won out and she went a little ballistic “AM I SURE? YES, I AM SURE. What? You think I wouldn’t recognize her anymore?! What the fuck, Sarah?”. Ron, the driver, looked shocked – no one talked to Sarah like that. But his eyes were back on the road in a second after catching a scathing look from Dani. This was a private conversation, even if the most privacy Dani could afford right now was the back of an old electricians van, being driven down a highway at maximal speed.

The line was silent for a second. Dani covered her eyes with her other hand for a second and took a deep breath. “Sorry” she said silently “This is all a bit much”. 

“I bet.” Sarah said, in a tone that Dani only after years had realized was Sarahs ‘empathic’ tone. It didn’t sound very different from Sarahs ‘you’re an idiot’ tone – which was her normal tone. 

“So, our girl is FBI now. That’s one up from dying as a soldier in a war against machines, right?” Sarah stated, to bring a little perspective to this conversation. Dani let out a shaky breath and nodded in agreement, even though Sarah obviously couldn’t see her.

“Do you think she made you?” Sarah asked. 

“Must have – she’s Grace – she probably revises the Most Wanted list before going to sleep each night, if she’s anything like the Grace we knew.” Even though it was meant to sound condescending so she could gain some distance from this mess, it sounded fond and longing, but Sarah didn’t call her out like usually – just chuckled. “Yeah, probably.” They were both contemplating in silence for a while. 

“What did you find about Latemer?” Sarah asked suddenly, as if realizing just now that Dani had been in Silicon Valley for a reason.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can come talk to me about Terminator: Dark Fate or this fanfic on imhereforthetvshows.tumblr.com or in the comments here


	4. Unreliable witness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grace is on the hunt for Dani, but the investigation doesn't really go her way.  
> This is purely a Grace chapter, obviously with mentions of Dani.

The search for Daniela Ramos was going horribly, in Graces opinion. Either the people in her taskforce were trying to be incompetent, were in fact incompetent, or this woman had some serious grit because they did not find another trace of her anywhere, besides that first sighting.  
Some voices in the office were saying they should be focusing on other routes of investigation – which basically was a nice way of saying, that they thought Grace was an unreliable witness, who thought she saw someone who wasn’t there. How else would it be possible, that there was no sighting of the woman on any traffic cameras or in person, even across state lines? She couldn’t just disappear into thin air – so the logical conclusion for most was that she hadn’t been there in the first place.

Graces superiors had been supportive at first, because she had never steered them wrong. And of course, the fact that she had penned down a sketch of someone looking eerily similar to Daniela Ramos helped keep them focused during the first week after the sighting. But pretty soon other aspects were discovered and what Grace had seen, didn’t really fit into any of that.

Latemers flat had been broken into – and it seemed like there had been quite a struggle with most of the furniture knocked over and broken glass from various vases and a glass table littering the floor. He must have gotten away because the timeline showed he was kidnapped outside a diner after the break-in. 

Daniela Ramos had not shown any sign of injury when Grace saw her and Michael Latemer was a big guy – most of Graces colleagues didn’t think the small woman could have gotten even one punch in, in a fight with Latemer. While Grace didn’t share their belittling assumption, she had to admit that Daniela Ramos hadn’t looked like she had been in a fight recently and there was no one accompanying her inside the building, that could have been. And yet Grace knew with absolute certainty who she had seen that day. She was so sure! Maybe if the woman had just walked by looking away from her, there would be a chance that she had made a mistake but that woman had looked at her – really looked at her – and a picture of her face had burnt itself into the back of Graces skull. The look on her face was complete and utter shock, but not mixed with panic, like she had seen on the faces of perps when they realized she was FBI. That look was mixed with something else but the moment had been over far too fast for Grace to identify what else it was, that was written on Daniela Ramos face.

Now, when she would wake up during the night after dreaming again - of running after the woman - always in different settings – factory, woods, highway – and never catching her, she would make another sketch of the face she saw, just to get it out of her head. And the sketch never changed – it was Daniela Ramos, she was sure of it, but the sketch book on her bedside table almost full with pictures of the woman wasn’t exactly hard evidence.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

When her superiors finally made the call to put the search for Daniela Ramos in association with the kidnapping on ice, two weeks had passed and they had not found one bit of evidence that Daniela Ramos was somehow involved in any of it. Additionally, they had gotten intel from another agency that there was some Ramos-related activity in southern Russia and that was the last nail in the coffin. Grace was furious – with her superiors, the idiots in her taskforce, and, even if she didn’t want to admit it, herself. She was so sure she had seen this woman, she felt crazy. She was always a “follow the evidence” type of gal, so why was the evidence misleading her now?

Grace pondered this on her way to a conversation-room, basically a fancier interrogation room for questioning family members and other non-suspects. She was going to meet Latemers sister there for the first time. The woman, Anne Latemer, had just flown in from across the country. She had refused to do so before, because apparently Michael had in the months prior also disappeared for a few days and she had immediately flown in and tried to move heaven and hell to find him, only for him to turn up again and apologetically say he had just gone on a little gambling-trip to Las Vegas. The fact that there had been witnesses who had seen him being kidnapped, wasn’t communicated to her, because exactly those witnesses needed to stay hidden, until they knew exactly who they were dealing with, even if the witnesses had only seen two men in masks grab Latemer and pull him into a van at the diner car park, and another hidden figure driving the van.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

After the interview Grace wasn’t any smarter than before. Michael Latemer had no known associates that matched Daniela Ramos description and the sister also couldn’t think of anyone who would want to hurt her brother. 

Graces colleague seemed to think otherwise, because as soon as the judgmental bastard heard the words Las Vegas he assumed that Latemer must have gotten in trouble there, even though none of his financial records showed any indication of that. He had paid for a hotel in the center of Las Vegas, gambled with a few hundred and paid for a ticket to a show – nothing out of the ordinary. But the guy insisted on his “hunch” and, if Grace hadn’t looked a second away from murdering him, he would have said aloud what he thought, which was, that they had spent all their time investigating Graces “hunch” to no end, so why not his?

The investigation was then taken into all directions – which, Grace had to admit – would have been a good thing from the start. The van that Latemer was abducted with had been found burnt out at the side of the road – no identifying markers. A car that had been stolen close-by was found many miles away at the side of the road, also burnt out and having avoided traffic cameras all the way there. There the trail got cold.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Halfway across the country, the wife of a trucker, Miles Wolve, reported him missing. His route had gone by a truck stop close to where a stolen car was found. The separate systems of police and FBI, as well as the differences in location, were enough for no one to connect the two events. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Grace had strict orders not to pursue the “Ramos-route" any longer. She was currently supposed to retake witness statements of the neighbors, because the prior line of questioning had been too focused on Daniela Ramos, for her superiors liking. The only mildly interesting thing she found, was that one of the neighbors, legally named Ronald Snyder, but known to his neighbors as Alec, had moved out of the flat across from Latemer. She made a mental note to follow up on that. 

Now standing in front of the yellow tape, indicating Latemers flat as a crime scene, she wanted to check his flat herself. She had shortly been in the flat after seeing Ramos, but the lab techs did the rest and had found nothing but that it had been wiped down clean.

She found the place trasher - the way she left it. The lab techs had strict orders not to change the state of the flat too much.  
She looked through Latemers mail and into the fridge and the medicine cabinet – to get a feel of the guy she was tasked with finding. She stood in the middle of the room looking around and her eyes fixed the fridge door - there – front and center, on the fridge was a Las Vegas magnet, pinning the music show ticket to the fridge. Next to it a bill to pay and the menu of a pizza delivery service. Something about this didn’t fit.  
She stared at the closed door of the fridge and then rapidly turned around, her eyes searching the room for something. She sprang into action like a bent spring, rummaging through the cabinets and the walk-in-closet but her eyes never landed on the things she was looking for. The guy hadn’t kept a single ticket of any event he had been at, he didn’t even own a radio or an iPod or any kind of music medium. She pulled out his phone, with its broken glass from falling to the ground during the kidnapping and scrolled through it. It had the pdf of the ticket to show on it but no music app whatsoever. If she had to deduct his style of music from his place of living, she would say he didn’t listen to any at all. According to the sister Latemer would spend weeks of holidays at the beaches of the west coast and the used snorkeling and swimming equipment in his closet testified to that, but of none of these places did he have a magnet on the fridge. There were photos of the beach and a weird selfie with a surfboard on his phone and a picture of fancy shoes on red carpet taken during the time he was in Las Vegas, but the shoes were nowhere to be found. The guy was an introverted beach boy who barely owned a shirt with long sleeves and he was supposed to have gone on a Las Vegas vacation to gamble? To do what?? 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

"Nice to see you've learned to take your partners input into consideration", was what her boss Yasmin Whittaker greeted her with, when she entered her office. The confusion Grace felt must've shown on her face because Whittaker chuckled.  
Grace shot her a questioning look and Whittaker pointed at the screen in front of her. "Your request to investigate the Las Vegas vacation. I gather Agent Sinclair has made a convincing case of his theory, considering you even did the paperwork for the trip." There was amusement in her voice and Grace got the distinct impression the woman didn't really believe the scenario she had just spun out.  
"Ma'am, I don't know what Sinclair is doing, but this vacation feels fishy. I'm not even sure Latemer actually went there."  
Now it was Whittakers turn to look confused but she motioned Grace to go on and Grace relayed what she had found or not found in Latemers apartment.  
While Whittaker was listening with interest, there was skepticism shining through. After Grace had finished she looked at her for a long while and said "I trust you, Grace. If you say it feels off then you're permitted to go to Las Vegas and check it out." Grace was about to turn on the spot with a 'thank you, Ma'am' on her lips, when Whittaker added, "Take Sinclair with you. He has suspicions about the Las Vegas trip too. You'll investigate both theories." It sounded final. "With all due respect Ma'am..", Grace started but was cut off by a strict look on Whittakers face and "That'll be all, Agent Erikson".

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me about the fic or Terminator: Dark Fate at: imhereforthetvshows.tumblr.com
> 
> Also yes, I did name Graces Boss Yasmin Whittaker in honor of Yasmin Khan from Doctor Who and Jodie Whittaker, playing the Doctor in Doctor Who. You can imagine her as an aged Yasmin Khan or, if you like, her mother Nadja.


	5. Deserts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally find out what Dani has been up to, regarding Michael Latemer.

Dani was pacing. The small main room of the hut she was staying in, wasn’t big enough for the nervous energy she was trying to get rid of. 

Even though early in the morning, the heat had abruptly spiked when the sun had risen and when she looked out of the dirty windows of the hut she was blinded by the unbridled brightness of the sun being reflected from the desert ground. She shook her head a little at the thought that not even half an hour away, an enormous city was thriving - people flocking to it, to get a taste of the opulence the casinos and hotels and water shows provided - almost proof that humans had conquered it all, laughing in the face of the uninhabitability of the desert. 

Dani knew better than anyone, aside from Sarah, that the human ego could well lead to its own extinction - the illusion of control. Not only in the AI industry, where progress was always put in front of caution, but also in how humans treated the planet. Looking outside now, she shuddered a little at the idea that deserts would one day make up almost all of the surface of the earth, if humans didn’t finally act and stop their destructive behavior. 

The few plants that were in sight were beige like the ground, and the hills in the distance were blurred from the radiant heat. The Nevadan desert, at least, had been here for a while, she thought, and decided that one possible ending of the world would be enough to focus on right now and soon enough she was saved from her own worries by the ringing of her phone. 

“Are you still there?” harshly asked, was the first thing she heard when picking up.

“Hello to you too, Sarah. So nice of you to call, I’m fine thanks, and you?” she mocked a little and the annoyed huff on the other side was enough to make her chuckle amusedly. 

“Are you?.. Still there, I mean?” Sarah asked, this time a little softer but still with force.

“Yes, obviously I am still there!” Dani said, as if that was really the most obvious thing. 

“You realize that you were seen by an FBI Agent, right? Our sources say there is an entirely new task force looking for you and you can’t be bothered to even leave the damn country?! This is reckless, Dani!”

“You know what was reckless? Not getting Michael out sooner! We should have exfiltrated him after we first recruited him. His partner would have never been able to deliver on the army contract on his own.” 

“You know we couldn’t have been sure of that! And Michael wasn’t either. He was the one who said he needed to go back and finish the project. He had to know if Robertson could finish the AI on his own or not… and may I remind you that you were the one who didn’t want to plant some incriminating evidence to make sure Robertson wasn’t allowed near a computer anymore.” 

“Oh, so sorry, that I’ve had enough of sending innocent people to jail, Sarah.” Dani said, in an entirely different kind of mocking tone than before. 

There was silence for a bit. 

Sarah huffed and said “Well, here we are now. Linda said she is tracking down a lead that could possibly lead us to Michaels kidnappers. She says she smells foreign intelligence agency all over the trail.”

Dani gulped a little - this was bad news.   
They had recruited Michael Latemer after he had closed a deal with the United States Army to deliver a fighting AI, again eerily similar to a branch of Legion. They didn’t relocate him immediately after, because he was afraid his partner could finish the contract on his own and obviously that would defeat the purpose of recruiting Latemer. So he went back with the definitive plan to exfiltrate as soon as the delivery date for the AI approached and take all their work with him.   
Now, months after their first meeting right here in the desert of Nevada, he had been kidnapped, possibly to force him to deliver the AI to some other countries army - which was exactly what they had wanted to prevent.

“So even more reason for me to stay here. We need to have boots on the ground when Linda finds his location.” Dani said. 

“We Have boots on the ground. We have worked with enough private security firms in the area. One of them can send a team to get him out.” it was almost said patiently and Dani was a little confused to see the softer side of Sarah at this moment. 

“I agreed to let him go back in, I want to be there when we find him!” Dani said definitively. She vaguely heard a mumbled “Bullshit” from the other woman. Maybe it were Danis frayed nerves or the unbearable heat but against her better judgement she let out an aggressive “What did you just say?” “It’s nothing” came the relenting answer from Sarah and if Dani knew what was good for her she would’ve stopped there but she didn’t “No, you tell me what you just said!” Dani raised her voice.   
“I said, BULLSHIT!” came equally as loud from Sarah “You know exactly why you haven’t left! You saw Her and now you fucking hope to see her again! But you seem to conveniently forget that IF you see her, that also means that the FUCKING FBI found you!” 

Danis mouth went dry and whatever adrenaline-powered answer she would have wanted to give, the words wouldn’t come.   
She closed her eyes and steadied herself on the table she was standing next to. Her breath was shaky and she could hear Sarah sigh and continue, much too soft, because tears of frustration and helplessness formed in her eyes at the understanding tone the badass on the other end of the line had, when she said slowly “I get why you want to see her, I do but this isn’t a chance meeting, where you go to grab a coffee and she is your barista. She was there because she is an FBI agent and she saw you leave Mikes flat. She recognized you and put an entire task force at your trail.” Her voice was still soft, as she continued slowly “She’s dangerous. Always has been... only this time she isn’t on our side”. Dani heard the regret in Sarahs voice, the grief and wiped angrily at a treacherous tear that made its way down her face. She took a deep breath and said in a final tone that was full of strength she didn’t feel “You think what you want to think. But noone will find me here - I’m literally in the desert. I’ll get Mike once we have a location and I’ll leave the country with him - no looking back, ok?” and she ended the call before she would have to acknowledge what Sarah was saying.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

They took the next commercial flight to Vegas and arrived at their motel at the outskirts of the city in their government issued vehicle, a Ford Crown Victoria. 

It was night time by then and after a look at the tired young Agent next to her, Grace decided to start investigating the next morning. She was tired too. Nightmares kept her from sleeping - if you could call them that. It was always the same face, just out of her reach, that woke her out of the much needed sleep. 

Grace, clearly the senior Agent and in charge, made it very clear how this investigation would go. Tomorrow they would verify that Latemer had been here and would track his whereabouts. Should, and only then, there be any criminal organ in his vicinity, would they go investigating the "gambling debt" or mob route the young Agent was so excited about. 

It must have seemed fair to him because he agreed easily. And they went there different ways, agreeing to meet at 6am sharp at the motel diner tomorrow morning.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come talk to me about this fic or Terminator: Dark Fate in general on imhereforthetvshows.tumblr.com


	6. Gut feeling

They hit the hotel Latemer had stayed in first. They got security footage of his car entering the parking lot. The hotel had cameras everywhere, aside from the rooms, so they were able to track his movement all throughout the hotel. He didn’t avoid cameras per se but they never really got a good look at his face. He had checked in and gone up to his room, then after a few hours, emerged and spent the evening in the hotel casino, gambling at the slot machines and various other games with chips that were worth 500 Dollars. He went back to his room after that and didn’t come back out until the next morning to grab breakfast in the casino. 

It would have been all very unsuspicious, if it weren’t for the fact that Latemer never took off his sunglasses - the entirety of his stay! They were big, rimmed sunglasses, that he didn’t take off even when sitting in the shade outside to eat breakfast or gambling at the slot machines at 1 am.  
“Maybe he didn’t want to be recognized. Or he didn’t want anyone to approach him- he is a little awkward around people, they say” came the helpful insights from her rookie partner Sinclair and Graces intense look shifted from looking at the security footage to Sinclairs face. “Sure.” she said in an entirely unconvinced way and went back to fast forwarding through Michael Latemers stay in the hotel. Sinclair drew his eyebrows up, looking at his partner. How was she even able to see anything running through the footage at max. speed?! Was she a robot? Would fit with his impression of hers - little talk, all business. He shook his head a little and trained his eyes on the camera footage as well. 

“Call the office, tell them to track Latemers movements outside of the hotel. Use all cameras they can get their hands on. I want to know where he went and for how long he stayed there. Every minute accounted for - you got that?” she looked at him but did not wait for him to respond and said “I’ll go talk to some of the employees. Someone must have seen him up close - I want to see if they can identify him.” and off she was, with Sinclair left staring after her.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

She had been given a list of people who worked at the hotel during Latemers stay and was continually making her way down that list. Almost everyone seemed to remember the name “Michael Latemer”, being explicitly trained to remember guests names to greet them by it. The concierge, who checked him into the hotel, remembered that he had a R2D2-keychain - which matched what they knew about Michael Latemers keychain - and she was pretty sure that the guy in the foto Grace showed her, was who she had checked-in 3 months back.  
The security guy from the casino remembered “the guy looked like a real douchebag with his fancy sunglasses on all the time” and couldn’t really confirm or deny whether the guy in the photo was who he had seen. 

What those two and the dozen other people she questioned had in common was that they said they had never seen him without his sunglasses on.

The day was coming to an end when Sinclair found her - to her great dismay - and gave her an update on Latemers whereabouts outside of the hotel. He had gone to a nice lunch place, walked around the city, looked at a water show, went to buy a suit in a mid-range clothing store and got a massage in a spa hotel. It truly seemed like he used his three days vacation for nothing but relaxation.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

The next day they tracked down the employees of the other establishments he had spent time in and their answers, like before, lead to nothing. Some didn't remember him at all, others had no clear image in their head of what he looked like, mainly helped by the fact that he had these big, rimmed sunglasses obscuring their view of his face. 

In the evening when they sat at the motels diner going over what they had or hadn't found, Sinclair mentioned having sent in a status update to their superior and Grace thought for a second about whether she should stab him in the eye with her fork.

Her look must've communicated that pretty clearly and he raised his hands in a show of peace and said, that they literally had accounted for every minute of Latemers stay and hadn't found anything out of the ordinary. 

"You don't find a guy never taking off his fucking sunglasses for an entire trip out of the ordinary?" she asked in a mock-patient tone.  
"That's literally the ONLY thing! Nothing happened here, Agent Erikson. We were both wrong. Agent Whittaker ordered us back anyways. Our flight leaves tomorrow morning at 7:30". She just stared at him and he must've taken her silence for some form of agreement or regret and said in an empathic tone "We got it wrong. It happens to everyone sometimes" and gave her a smile meant to cheer her up. 

Meanwhile the pressure behind Graces eyes continuously grew and she had to stop herself from slapping the shit out of the idiot in front of her. But if there was something Grace had, it was self control strong as steel and she simply said "Not to me", got up and left the young agent behind - together with her half-eaten burger.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Grace couldn't believe Sinclairs nerve - or Whittakers even. 

She was pacing her room, anger and adrenaline coursing through her veins - going round and round. 

What an idiot! He had reported way too early to their superior. Grace knew she didn't have all the facts yet - she still felt something was off with this trip!

She opened the motel mini bar, got out the horrible whiskey and poured herself a shot, which burned down her throat, followed by another one. But instead of giving her the calm she was looking for, it made her even more angry - her anger suddenly turning in an unexpected direction - towards herself or maybe the universe. How could her intuition be So off in this case?! How could she not have realized Daniela Ramos was across from her immediately in that hallway?! How could the evidence point in another direction, when she had clearly seen the woman?! How could there be NO unaccounted time in Latemers Vegas trip, when she had been so sure that it was out of character for him to come here?! 

Her thoughts racing, she threw the cheap shot glass across the room, where it crumbled against the wall. The loud noise mildly shocked her, as she stood in the middle of her room, breathing heavily. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. 

She needed to get her shit together and make a plan.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

The next morning at 5am she was about to get into their car to go back to the casino and leave Agent Sinclair to deal with how he got to the airport, when the young agent stumbled out of his room, still a little sleep-drunk but fully dressed and jogged to catch up with her. He had jumped in the passenger seat before she could react and was looking at her apologetically. 

"I know who you are Agent Erikson. I've heard of you before I even got out of the academy. I know you've never failed to deliver, so Imma trust your gut and miss that flight like you will" and then, to Graces horror, he raised his fist, expecting a fist bump and said "Partners.". She just looked at him then turned the key in the ignition and shook her head, leaving him hanging.  
He counted it as a win that she didn't drag his body out of the car. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

They went to the hotel security again, to look at the footage from Latemers visit. This time also checking the footage around the hotel, to make sure he hadn't sneaked out at night. It hadn't happened though, and they had arrived at the point in the footage of Latemers last night at the hotel, when he went to the infamous, out of character music show in his hotel. Her eyes followed him as he entered the angle of another security camera and then crossed the room to the entry of the concert hall to show the employee his ticket, his back turned to the camera, a slight movement of his hands, in a span of 2 seconds maybe - she didn't know how she'd missed it the first time around - the employee looked at the ticket and then looked up. Her razor sharp focus was on Latemers hand, when she repeated the footage.  
"Son of a bitch", she said and was gone out of the room before Sinclair comprehended what had happened. 

He scrambled to run after her and found her entering the employee locker room, charging toward the employee who had checked Latemers ticket.  
She grabbed the guy by the collar and pushed him against the locker, "Never saw him without his glasses, hm?!" Graces voice was dangerously low and she continued to pin him to the locker. 

"We have fucking footage of him taking of his glasses and you looking at him!!" Sinclair was mildly shocked at the revelation but put his hand on her biceps and said "Agent Erikson, let the man go." She didn't look away from the man in front of her, who had grown increasingly pale and had started to sweat. "What? Did someone give you a message to pass to him? Or pay you to forget his face?!" and the man studdered "n-no - I swear.. I" Grace mildly released her grip on the man for a second and then pushed him against the locker with more force than before. His head hit the locker painfully. In that moment the casino owner, Edward Stinson, alerted by another employee, hurried into the room "Agent Erikson, release this man at once! We have been nothing but cooperative with you - I will not tolerate you bullying one of my employees!" 

"Yeah? Cooperative? How come I have footage from Your cameras showing Michael Latemer taking off his glasses to clean them, and This man looking him right in the eye while he does?!". The room fell silent and Stinson said calmly "Let him go and I will make sure he answers whatever questions you have for him". At that Grace let him go and the guy slumped against the locker, catching his breath. 

"Benjamin, answer the agents question" Stinson ordered and the guy, shaking, straightened up to say, "Sir I'm really sorry.." Grace closed her eyes, while taking a deep breath, waiting for the inevitable confession of his part in the plot "..I was high that night. I don't remember anything". He said it really fast, with fear in his voice and Graces eyes went wide with shock as she turned to look at him. There was no lie in his eyes and all she could think was "Fuck.".

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Half an hour later they were at their motel, silence reigning during the drive there. Grace had snapped - at the wrong person. She had laid hands on a civilian in front of his employer and one of the richest men in Las Vegas. This wasn't going to be good.


	7. Rogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grace makes some hard decisions.   
> Guess who she meets in the middle of the Nevadan desert under dire circumstances?

Grace was currently staring at the wall of Sinclairs room, their boss on speaker phone on the table next to her. 

Her boss Agent Whittaker had been baffled to get a call from one of Her superiors, that a wealthy casino owner made a complaint about one of her agents behavior that morning - especially because that agent was supposed to be on a flight back around that time. She knew Grace Erikson was a wild card but up until now, her instincts had always led her right and her intense, razor-like focus and obvious lack of a personal life or basic human needs had been an asset to the Bureau. Which made this next part all the more difficult - actually reprimanding her. Whittaker doubted that it would have much of an effect but she actually was furious, which should help. 

“MY agents don’t touch a hair on a civilians head unless under attack?! How is this too much to ask? You are not some tv show cops, with a nag to violate peoples rights, are we understood?” and Sinclair stood solidarily next to Grace and after a second, where Grace didn’t say anything he answered “Yes, Ma’am. Of course”. 

Graces mind was racing - it hadn’t stopped racing since she had seen the video and thought she finally had caught a break in the case. She hadn’t - and in the process she fucked up. She knew that but it still didn’t make any sort of sense to her why Latemer would take this trip or why he would disguise himself with sunglasses. All of the facts she had gathered during the last few days were racing through her brain but her focus was dampened by the insistant voice of her boss, telling her how much she fucked up. 

She honed back into the conversation just in time to catch “you’ll return to the task force headquarters tonight! This time really make it to the flight!” This made Grace spring into action, finally participating in the conversation, “Agent Whittaker, we can’t leave now! There is something here - I swear I can feel it in my gut! Something happened here. It would be reckless not to investigate further!” she said animatedly and Whittaker drew in an impatient breath. “There's nothing there, Agent. No evidence of any kind. This was a waste of time and resources..” 

“Excuse me, Ma’am - but how can you be so sure?!”

“I don’t have to explain my decisions to you, Agent Erikson”.

“Oh come On!!” Grace knew she entered dangerous territory here. Being impolite or disrespectful to your superior almost never gets you what you want and usually makes the whole situation worse but her patience was wearing thin, the lack of sleep and her confusion about her own unreliable intuition gnawing at her cognitive resources. “I’ve worked in the field for years and always delivered and you can’t be bothered to give me a Little more time?!” Grace asked, disbelief and aggression coating her voice. 

There was silence for a few seconds and Grace could see Sinclair shifting uncomfortable, obviously looking for something to say but she shot him a warning look to keep his mouth shut and the message was received. 

The next thing that came out of Whittakers mouth made Graces world spin. 

“I can’t be bothered because Agents Richstone and Quinn found out who kidnapped Michael Latemer as of yesterday.”

A confused “What?” came from Sinclairs direction prompting their boss to continue.

“The neighbour, Ronald Snyder, who had moved out directly after Latemer was kidnapped. The follow-up that You pushed to Richstone to do, Agent Erikson. Turns out his real name is Aleksei Yahontov, Russian national. When he still went by this name he was under surveillance by the CIA for potential espionage but he fell off the ends of the earth a year ago…”

“..only to reappear as Latemers neighbour - that can’t be a coincidence!” Sinclair finished for her. If the annoyed huff was anything to go by Whittaker wasn’t very happy about it and Sinclair gulped a little, letting the woman continue the impromptu briefing.

“We cross-referenced Yahontovs picture with the surveillance footage from the diner parking lot and the confirmation-analysis revealed a significant probability that he was one of the men who took Latemer. We’re working with the CIA now to find out where the Russians could be potentially holding Latemer. This is need-to-know only! We have a potential kidnapping of a war-AI-programmer by a foreign Intelligence officer on our hands. The situation is extremely volatile,” and with an even more annoyed tone than before she added “and this briefing wasn’t supposed to happen via phone! My patience is wearing thin, Agents. You will take the flight tonight and if you’re lucky you’ll still have a job to come back to tomorrow morning!” and then she hung up. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

“I’m not going back” Grace said almost eerily calm, two hours later, when Sinclair came to her room to check if she had finished packing.

“What?!” Sinclair looked honestly shaken, and a little as if he misheard what she said. 

“I’m not going back” Grace repeated, voice strong. 

“But - we have to! This was a dead end - we KNOW who took him! What the fuck are you hoping to find here?!” and the question struck Grace a little. 

“I’ve never heard of Daniela Ramos working with any national intelligence agency - have you?” she asked calmly, as if she hadn’t heard his question. 

“That is so fucking irrelevant right now” he said, his voice almost pleading.

“I saw her! It doesn’t matter that the entire Bureau doesn’t believe me - I Know who I saw!” she said and then added as if an afterthought “I haven’t gotten her image out of my head ever since.”

Sinclair just looked at her with wide eyes. 

“Nevermind if you saw her or not or if she was involved in this - You will be out of a job if you don’t board that plane today” he said his voice laced with worry “We have to go!”. 

Grace just kept moving through the room, packing things, as if the discussion was over and then she felt Sinclair reach out to stop her with his hand on her arm. She tore her arm out of his grasp and looked at him as he stumbled back a little. He looked at her and repeated probably a little louder than necessary “We have to go!”

“Make me!” Grace said, low and threateningly and put her fists up for a fight. He looked shocked and studdered “Th-this is crazy – we HAVE TO go back to base! We have orders, Grace! Look at yourself! You’re not making any sense! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!” by the end he had started yelling and he had such a pleading and exasperated look on his face that Grace was taken aback for a second. She took her fists down – what the hell Was she doing? She wasn’t really a team player but she had never before threatened to start an actual physical fight with her colleagues. The Daniela Ramos sighting got into her head, but even as she saw her own crazy reflected in her partners scared eyes, she couldn’t stop now. 

“You’re right – you should go back” she said, a little defeated and before he could say anything she was out of the room and by the time he had crossed the room, opened the door back up and looked outside he saw no trace of her. Their car was still parked right in front where they had left it.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Grace realized that whatever had just happened would likely cost her her career. ‘Better make it worth it’ she thought to herself and decided against her unfaltering drive to work, to get breakfast at a diner. Her disobedience would do no good, if she couldn’t think rationally anymore.

This was how she landed at a road-side diner, all her belongings in her duffle bag under the table, ordering an assortment of breakfast foods, even though it was in the afternoon and then going to the bathroom to quickly wash a little and put on a new undershirt and shirt. Looking at the mirror she saw the dark circles under her eyes and for the first time in this case, properly questioned herself.

She must’ve stared into the mirror for too long because the friendly waitress, suddenly arrived next to her “You okay, sweetie?” she asked but didn’t wait for an answer “Your breakfast is waiting for you” and then left again.

Grace chuckled dryly at herself – if a stranger called Her “sweetie” she must really look pitiful. Usually her long, muscular frame, her intense and yet distant eyes and the badge strapped to her belt kept people away from connecting with her like that.

After she finished the breakfast, had some water and was on her second cup of coffee, she felt like she could think properly again. She got out her laptop from her duffle bag – making sure that no-one saw the FBI issued semi-automatic assault rifle, she was carrying in the bag. She felt truly bad for not having a car to lock it away into. She had seen what those things can do if they got into the wrong hands, but she had also thought that her assault gear, including the bullet proof west, military grade binoculars and magazines of bullets, might come in handy, especially when working on her own.

She realized she still had access to the FBI databases, which meant Sinclair hadn’t reported her immediately after she took off. She estimated that he wouldn’t be able to put it off, once he landed or, at most, until the next day, when he had to report back at the office. However annoying the young man was – she was surprised at his level of respect and loyalty towards her and she realized she probably could’ve been a little nicer to him.

Now that her brain was on full power again, she realized that the only time not accounted for, of the entire trip, was the drive to Las Vegas itself. She checked her notes online and, in the meticulously organized folders and subfolders, soon found the time Latemer took off for the trip and soon later the time he had checked-in at the hotel. In her estimations of how long the drive took, even with breaks, he had taken two hours longer. Her heartbeat picked up its speed but she reminded herself, that not everything is evidence of foul-play in this case – as she had painfully learned that morning.

Taking a deep breath in, she accessed the traffic cameras of the highway Latemer must’ve taken, and soon enough she identified his car coming onto the highway. It took her over an hour to follow the succession of traffic cameras and check if the time it took Latemer to get from one to another was realistic or too long. She was almost at the end of his journey, having not found anything. The traffic cameras she checked were not far from Las Vegas now, when she realized there had been a significantly longer time jump - around two hours. She checked google-maps and realized there was nothing along those miles between the two traffic cameras – not even a road-side gas station.

She took a deep breath, took a picture of her google-maps search with her phone, put away all her things and paid with a generous tip.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Across from the diner she could see that a dirty, old, beige Ford Pick-Up was on sale in the front yard of someone, and fifteen minutes later she was locking away her gear in the trunk of her new vehicle.

Even though old, the car drove nicely and it only took around half an hour for her to get to the part of the highway, where Latemer had spent two hours for no apparent reason. The first time she drove the length of the road between the two traffic cameras, she saw nothing that would give her a clue as to where Latemer had gone – there wasn’t even one small dirt road away from the Highway. Grace being Grace, decided to patrol that part of the highway until someone gave her a clue as to where to go.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-|-

It was way past midnight and she had just parked at the side of the road, with her lights off, when a shiny pick-up truck stopped and then turned off the road at a random point a few hundred metres from her. No dirt road or tire tracks indicating that going into that direction would lead anywhere but the desert. A few kilometres onward there were hills rising from the desert-plane and Grace assumed the truck was headed somewhere across from those hills, as everything else would be visible from the road.

Grace felt her pulse rise in anticipation and she simultaneously felt relief wash over all of her body - she hadn’t been wrong! Michael Latemer had gone to an off-road location for at least two hours, if not longer, if the person with the glasses had not been him in Las Vegas. 

With her confidence restored she followed the car from a considerable distance, leaving her lights off, only the light of the moon lighting her way. It took around 3 minutes to reach the hills and she decided to park her vehicle behind a bend in the hills and make the track up the hills by foot. She didn’t want to draw attention to her arrival. 

She tugged on her bullet-proof vest over her shirt and strapped the assault rifle to her back, put her military-grade binoculars around her neck and made her way up the hill. The truck she had been following had already crossed the hill but she found it again when she made it to the top of the hill. Ducking down low and laying in the desert sand she saw two shabby looking huts, a few hundred metres down from the top of the hill, illuminated by the headlights of the truck and a man carrying what looked like grocery bags into one of the huts. 

When he turned off the headlights, the valley was cast into darkness. It took a while for Graces senses to adapt to the darkness and she could make out the shapes of the huts and the truck in the dark. 

Grace contemplated calling it in and requesting back-up but in the off-chance that she was wrong again, and this was just a random guy living in the desert, she decided to stake out the huts until she got confirmation of what was going on here - whether Michael Latemer was held here or Daniela Ramos was here. Her binoculars showed only 2 heat signatures, which either meant the guy was on his own holding Latemer here or the other heat signature was Ramos but Latemer wasn’t here.

Grace hid herself from the view of the highway by finding a shallow pit and she wasn’t visible from the huts anyways because she was still on the other side of the hill. Only her head peaked up, to scan the area - again and again until it became morning. She was pretty sure she fell asleep once or twice for a few minutes but was happy to see that the heat signatures hadn’t moved in the meanwhile. 

As the sun rose, so did the temperature and around 8am she decided to take off her shirt, leaving her only in her ribbed undershirt, with the bullet-proof vest on top. She draped her shirt over her head to protect herself from the sun and cursed the dirty windows of the second hut, where she could see a figure moving around inside but couldn’t be sure of who the figure was. 

At around 10am Grace heard three cars simultaneously slow down on the highway behind her. They were still quite far away but when she turned to check it out, she could see three pick-ups with 5 men each on their cargo beds. Even without her binoculars she was quite sure she could make out that the men were armed. The trucks turned off the street and were driving towards the hill she was hiding on. 

‘Fuck’. 

She scrambled to grab her binoculars and through them she verified - 15 men, 3 drivers, armed to their teeth. Her head was racing but there was one thing her gut was telling her: these men weren’t on their way to these huts to report for duty or for a friendly visit. They looked like a kill-squad on their way to finish off a target. Her recently regained trust in her intuition came in handy now. It helped that she realized she knew one of the men at the back of one of the trucks. There, racing towards her, was Ronald Snyder or - his real name - Aleksei Yahontov. She didn’t need any more time to make her decision. 

She jumped up from her cover and was racing down the hill towards the huts. 

“Heeeey…. HEEEEYY” she yelled at the top of her lungs as she made her way down the hill running at top speed. It took only seconds until two figures stumbled out of one of the huts - first a guy, who immediately drew his gun and the second was a woman who she was absolutely sure was Daniela Ramos.

The guy started yelling for her to stop, to put her hands up into the air or he would shoot her but she didn’t have time for that. She was still a considerable distance away so she hoped that he just wouldn’t be able to hit her with his hand gun, if he tried. Daniela Ramos just stared at her but when she realized her companion had drawn his weapon, she had disarmed him in a second, holding his gun now - but not pointing it in Graces direction. 

‘Not the shoot first, ask questions later type’ Grace thought to herself and started yelling while still running at top speed towards the two “FIFTEEN MEN - KILL SQUAD - THEY’LL BE HERE IN 2 MINUTES - GET OUT!” all between breathing harshly from moving so fast. 

The two only stared at her but then jumped into action. To Graces shock they didn’t make their way to the pick-up parked next to them, but back into the hut. 

When she skidded to a halt at the entrance of the hut almost out of breath, her internal clock giving them a minute until the little army was upon them, she saw Daniela Ramos put several hard disks into a row of microwaves and the guy pouring out gasoline onto the floor and walls of the hut.

“Clean up” she said, still out of breath “nice priorities guys - but I would really like for you to not die until i can arrest you”. 

The woman shot her an amused look and chuckled, continued her work cool as a cucumber “Ron, toss her the keys” and then directed at Grace “Get the car started - we’ll be there in a second”. 

Graces extremely honed reaction-skills came in handy as she stared dumbly at the woman in front of her but still caught the keys. She stood there for another second but then got her bearings again and ran out to get the car going. Once it was going, she opened the doors and then moved back towards the hut. She could hear the approaching trucks now. 

She was almost at the entry of the hut again when the guy, “Ron”, ran passed her, followed by Ramos who grabbed her biceps to turn her around and drag her towards the car. Grace jumped a little when the entire hut exploded close behind her, but a second later she was in the passenger, not a second too late, because Ramos was already behind the wheel and put her foot on the pedal. In the rear view mirror Grace saw the first of three trucks appear on the top of the mountain - the men already training their guns at them. 

‘Fuck’.


	8. Something dangerous

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our heroines are chased through the desert.   
> ACTION ENSUES
> 
> (check end notes to find out what inspired me while writing this chapter)

The first shot rang out and hit with a loud bang, but the glass didn’t shatter as they were speeding across the desert-plane. ‘Bullet-proof glass’ noted Grace and couldn’t help but feel more alive than anytime the last few weeks. Other shots followed.

“Who the fuck did you piss off?” she asked directed at Dani, while she loaded all of her guns. 

She turned in her seat and trained her eyes on the vehicles pursuing them to devise a plan. She watched as several men from one truck jumped off at the burning huts and only one remained on the loading-bed, mounting a massive machine gun to the driver cabin. The weight of the men had apparently slowed the vehicle down considerably, because when the driver revved up again, Grace could see them approaching fast. 

“I wasn’t aware we had - any more than usual” was Danis answer, while exchanging looks with Ron throught the rear-view mirror and then directed at him “How did they find us?!” Grace could see that the two were looking unnerved apparently more because they had been found, as opposed to that someone was shooting at them. 

“How did She find us?” asked Ron from the back-seat, eyeing Grace distrustingly.

The truck with the mounted machine-gun was now in firing-range again and the power of the stationary gun blasted through the windows as if they hadn’t been bullet-proof.   
“GET DOWN!” Dani yelled as she pushed the car to move faster. Her hand shot out to Grace, as if to push her head further down behind the seat but her hand stopped mid-air and she immediately put it back onto the wheel. 

Grace noted this and filed the action away for inspection at a later moment. And if there was going to be a later moment was fully dependent on if the cars caught up with them or not.

Grace let out a gutteral “FUUCK” and then when Ron stared at her, almost sheepishly added “forgot my grenades in my truck” and Dani chuckled again - a dry sound that stirred something in Graces chest. 

“Ron, give the woman some tools please” Dani said, smirk still on her face and Grace felt like she wasn’t privy to a joke or something, because Daniela Ramos was acting as if she was in no way surprised that Grace, an FBI agent, was in her car and unhappy that she had forgotten her grenades. Also she didn’t seem to have a problem with trusting Grace, with her get-away vehicle, and apparently neither with an entire belt of grenades that was currently handed to Grace. Grace would agree with the risk assessment, that she was a much lesser evil than the men in the cars behind them, and she had warned them but how Daniela Ramos got to that assessment in such a short time, was above her head. But those contemplations were definitely for another time because at that moment, the truck following them, came into throwing distance.

“Hold the car steady,” Grace ordered, wrapped her right wrist around the seatbelt opened the car door and let herself fall horizontal out of the car, only her feet still in the car, the seat belt the only thing holding her in the car. She rolled, more than threw, the grenade precisely a few metres in front of the truck chasing them. It was on top of it a second later and BOOM. 

Grace felt the heat of the explosion on her face as she pulled herself back into the car. 

The two other vehicles had fallen behind and out of shooting range. 

“We need to get back onto the highway - police will intervene in our favor. We’re pretty outnumbered!” Grace said, still heavily breathing from the move she had just pulled. Dani stared at her - obviously shocked by the move - and then focused on driving again.  
“Yeah, we’re not really in the business of collaborating with law enforcement” said Ron from the backseat and pulled a hand-gun on Grace. 

Grace stared at him and just wanted to say something along the lines of ‘No honor among thieves’ when Dani jumped in first “Put the damn gun away, Ronald - I swear to god!” she sounded pretty pissed and the guy followed orders reluctantly. 

“The highway really isn’t an option though” said Dani towards Grace. 

“Well if you prefer dying to getting arrested, be my guest.”

The cars were falling further behind, obviously having less horse-power and more weight on them. Dani pulled the car to the right after a hill and the cars momentarily were out of view.

“Maybe we can outrun them” said Dani calmly.

Grace turned in her seat again, now looking out the front. After the immediate rush of danger passed, as silence settled alongside the revving noise of the car, Grace remembered why she was there in the first place. The lines between allies and enemies become blurred when someone’s shooting at you. She was there because a man had been kidnapped.

A second later she drew two handguns - training one each on Dani and Ron “Daniela Ramos and Ron whatever the fuck your name is, you’re under arrest for the kidnapping of Michael Latemer and several charges of terrorist activity”. 

The guy in the backseat was seething with anger but Ramos just said “I don’t think this is the time for this now, Grace”

“How do you know my name?” Grace shot back and then before waiting for the answer, she assumed they had kept track of the investigation, “It’s Agent Erikson to you.”

“Right” Ramos nodded, silently, her eyes turned dark and trained on the desert-plane in front of them. She looked a little defeated and Graces intuition went haywire with the possibilities of what that meant. She hadn’t thought that Ramos would let herself be arrested without a fight.   
Then, Ramos continued silently and matter of factly “Well, I’m driving this car right now and if you’re currently not feeling like you want to show those guys behind us your badge and hope for the best, I’m gonna get us away from here… And then we deal with all that.” she gestured lightly at Graces guns.

Then with a little anger in her voice she added “Just so you know, we didn’t kidnap Michael”, and after a short pause, where Grace just stared at her “I assume whoever is chasing us, did. They must’ve figured out that we have something they need, even if they have Michael.” 

Graces eyes were tracking every movement, every detail of Danis face. She didn’t see a lie in her eyes. Hell, she couldn’t think of a reason why the woman would lie, especially because she had not disputed the much worse terrorism charges. The familiar use of Latemers first name rung some bells in Graces head - had Latemer all those month ago during his supposed Las Vegas trip been recruited?

“You recruited him..” Grace stated, not a question, a fact and Ramos nodded her head.

“So the Russians stole him from a terrorist organization” Grace mirthlessly chuckled a little. 

“They didn’t just steal Micheal, they stole his knowledge of something very dangerous.”   
It was Graces turn to just nod.

Grace was looking back and realized she only saw one car, far behind them, following them. 

“Where is that second car?” she mumbled looking around for another trace of it. They were driving along a rockface, protruding many hundreds of metres to their right and Grace could see a small dirt road coming up, from behind where the rock ended. All her senses started to tingle and in the exact moment their car passed the wall of rock, Grace shouted “BREAK” but it was too late. 

The Jeep came from behind the rock, out of nowhere and ploughed into their rear right side, toppling over their car.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For reference, the move Grace does with the grenade is SO inspired by what Jane in Charlies Angels (2019) does in the car-chase scene: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBrZFO1Vde0; 2:16-2:32
> 
> And the enitre Birds of Prey soundtrack was going allthroughout writing this! Especially love Sway With Me by Saweetie & GALXARA


	9. Protector

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A lot of action! Grace is being Grace, what else can I say?

When Grace came to, the first three things that hit her were pain in her right side – she assumed from some broken ribs –a relentless ringing in her ear, that, upon further investigation, came from her left, and the smell of smoke. The car must’ve rolled over twice because they weren’t upside-down, Grace noted and slowly opened her eyes, a dull pain immediately spiking in the back of her head. 

She looked to her left and saw Dani, passed out on the steering wheels. An angry gash was visible on her forehead. Blood trickling down onto her face. Grace looked back and saw that Ron was passed out too. She was just about to try and wake them, when she saw a man approaching the driver-side of the vehicle. He seemed a little wobbly on his feet too. ‘Probably was in the other car’, Grace thought and realized, that one of the two guns she had been holding, was still within reach. 

Being armed was Graces most natural state, and she assumed the guy approaching didn’t have honorable intentions. 

She saw the man draw a gun and point it at Danis head just early enough, for her to pull the trigger and shoot him first, squarely in the chest. He slumped over and Grace let out a shaky breath, when a second later, she heard a gunshot pass by her ear, as if someone had tried to shoot her but missed. She then, from the corner of her eye, saw a man slump down next to the passenger side of the car and with a confused look around, realized that Ron had shot the guy with her second gun from the back seat. The guy had been armed too and Grace hadn’t even heard him approaching. 

She nodded and mumbled a hoarse “Thanks” in Rons direction. 

He seemed preoccupied by trying to get his jammed seat belt open, when he looked at her with wild, determined eyes and said, “We need to get out of here!”

Grace agreed, unbuckled herself and threw Ron the rescue-knife, she always kept in her pocket. She kicked her door open and immediately made her way around the car. She jimmied at the driver door to pry it open and then felt Danis pulse – strong and steady but she didn’t wake up when Grace called her name. Grace unbuckled her and carefully lifted her out of the car, one arm under her knees, the other supporting her back. Lifting the small woman would’ve been easy, if Graces ribs didn’t scream at her with every movement. 

Ron appeared next to her and nodded in the direction they had come from. The last one of the cars was speeding their way. “They’re two minutes out max.” he said with a gloomy look on his face.

Grace instinctively held Dani a little tighter to her body, at the approaching danger.

Graces mind raced through their options for survival.   
Their car as well as the car their assailants had used, were totaled – definitely not getaway material anymore.  
They could make a stand here, take on 6 armed guys and hope for the best. She still had the two handguns, one of which was still with Ron, but the additional ammo was still back at the Ford she had abandoned.

She was calculating their odds of survival if they started to get away on foot, when the woman in her arms started to stir and mumble, blinking her eyes at the harsh light from the sun beating down on them. Grace was looking down at her and swore she could hear her mumble a broken “Grace” and she caught herself whispering a calming “I’m here” to the woman in her arms. All of this was instinct and Graces mind didn’t even question what all this meant.

Now looking down at Dani, and then finding the eyes of Ron – the guy who had just saved her life –Grace decided to do, what she had set out to do when she started this job – protect. It had never really been about catching the bad guys. It was about protecting people – real life, surprising humans – like the one she now held in her arms.

She unceremoniously handed Dani to Ron and he questioningly looked at her. She checked if he still had her hand-gun and nodded when she saw it jammed in his belt. 

She looked at him and then said in a determined tone “Go – I’ll hold them off!”. 

He hesitated. ´

She gestured into a direction and said “Go north-west, don’t follow the dirt roads you see. Just keep going and you’ll hit the highway”. She hesitated shortly, then reached for the small silver string around her neck and pulled it out from under her undershirt and vest – it held a small compass. It had been her fathers. 

‘Might as well give them their best shot’ Grace thought to herself as she held it out to Ron. 

Dani, in his arms, seemed to regain her senses enough for her to demand to be set on her own two feet, still leaning heavily on Ron. When she opened her eyes she stared at the necklace with the compass Grace was holding out towards them, and even her bruised and battered brain must’ve realized what this meant. Afterall, she did know Grace. She had seen that same look on her face before. The look of sacrifice. A look of steel and fierce loyalty, that she couldn’t remember ever deserving – even when Grace first had found her in Mexico City and certainly not now.  
Still weak she drowsily murmured “Sure as hell not.. We’re not leaving you.. You don’t get to do that” and Grace found that the words were full of hurt, an emotion, she realized, she had seen in Danis eyes during their first encounter in Latemers hallway. Even though she wanted to know what all that was about, she looked towards the car approaching and then back at Ron and commanded “Get. her. out.” 

Ron looked at Grace, nodded and turned but looked back for a second and then said, honesty coating his voice “Thank you. I promise protecting her is worth it. She really is trying to save the world.” And then he steered Dani, who was struggling against his iron grip and protesting and then hoarsely screaming to not be taken away, away from Grace. Grace watched them go and saw Dani pass out again a few metres later and Ron picking her up and starting into a jog and Grace decided that she thought Ron was a thief with honor after all. She shook her head a little – it really didn’t matter if what Ron said was the truth. Right now, she decided to believe the guy. If this were her last moments on earth, she would like to spend them believing in people, Grace realized. A small chuckle escaped her lips and then she actually laughed out loud that her cynicism would abandon her so shortly before it all ended. Maybe it was meeting a woman from the Most Wanted list and realizing that she was worth protecting with her life, that restored Graces faith in people again.

Grace took a deep breath in, wincing at the pain it caused when her ribs moved.

She looked back through the car they had been in – smoke came from the engine – and found a lone grenade. She took it and loaded her handgun and then set up behind the Jeep of their assailants - waiting. Tactical assault planning had been one of her favorite classes at the academy. For a while there, she even thought she would apply to be part of the Tactical Assault Unit of the FBI. She ran dozens of scenarios in her head in a matter of seconds and eventually decided that the most important thing she needed to prevent, was that they went after Dani and Ron with the car. She looked up and could just about make out Ron with Dani in his arms running further away. 

‘OK. Take out the car first. Then everyone around it.’ Grace thought to herself. Determination rising.

She could hear the car coming to a stop. She was still behind the jeep and peered through a shattered window to assess the situation. She saw 3 sets of boots drop down from the loading plane of the truck to the ground next to their vehicle. 

‘Three men on the ground – three still in the car’ Grace thought to herself ‘They must’ve seen Dani and Ron flee’. She huffed a little, annoyed that the universe couldn’t be on her side for once in this case.

She heard one of the men give orders in Russian and then the revving of the car. She could hear it was about to pass her hiding spot, presumably to follow the figures on the horizon still visible. Just at the perfect moment Grace pulled herself upright, pulled the pin from the grenade with her teeth and with a strong arm, threw it as hard as she could towards the passing car. It didn’t hit the loading plane, as she had hoped but it was close enough for the back of the car to explode, with a bone-shattering noise, debris flying everywhere. 

Immediately after, she could more feel than hear, how bullets from the other three guys pierced through the air, into her direction. She was tucked back behind the jeep in a millisecond.

She laid flat on her stomach now, almost under the jeep and trained her gun onto the legs of the men that were currently still shooting at the space above her. With three precise shots she took out their legs. She pulled herself upright and made her way around the car.

“FBI, stop right there” she commanded, with her weapon trained on the three, groaning bodies. One of them had reached for his weapon but her command had stopped him, and she kicked away the guns in reach of the men. 

She could see one of the men focusing his eyes on a spot behind her, and felt all her senses tingling with the danger of what that meant. She was mid-turn when she felt the bullet hit her vest. She sent a flurry of bullets in that direction, which must’ve been successful in finding their target because Grace could see a man, presumably from the car she had failed to properly blow up, drop.

It was hard to breath, a searing hot pain making its way from where the bullet had impacted, in the middle of the vest covering her solar plexus to the ribs that had been cracked in the car crash. Her world went black for a few seconds and she felt herself fall to her knees but regained consciousness as she distantly heard footsteps behind her. She spun around, holding her gun up and when she saw that a huge guy with a knife was coming towards her, she pulled the trigger – ‘CLICK’ – was not what she had wanted to hear. She had run out of ammo. 

Her survival skills jumped back in and she was on her feet in the blink of an eye. The guy was now charging towards her. As soon as he was close enough, she threw her gun at his face, momentarily distracting him and then dropped to the ground to kick his legs from under him. The guy landed with a thud and she was kneeling on the hand he was holding his knife with, in seconds. She twisted the knife out of his grasp, but the guy had brute force going for him, so he pulled her off himself with his other arm. He swung his fists at her, but she ducked first right, then left, then left again, predicting his every move.

Her shaken brain finally regained connection to the part that had learned Martial Arts and she send a roundhouse kick towards the guy, making him stumble back, then twisted herself into a final kick to the side of his head, which knocked the big fella full on out.   
She was breathing heavily, holding herself up on her knees and then decided she needed to get out of there. She could feel that it wouldn’t be long before she passed out and the three guys, currently incapacitated by leg shots, could potentially become a threat again soon.  
Threatening the guys with the knife she got off the other guy, she searched them for phones in vain, and then disassembled all their weapons, taking small important parts of them with her, so that they couldn’t be used anymore. She was getting more and more dizzy and she could feel her brain getting fogged.  
She started into a jog in the direction they had come from. Maybe she could make it back to her car.

-|-|-|-|-|-

When Dani woke up again, she was in a dark, cool room. A familiar buzz and fog of pain medication and anti-inflammatory meds to treat her injuries was coursing through her veins. Rythmic beeping came from her right side. For a minute there all Dani felt was bliss. She knew the room she was in – it was in one of the safe houses, close to the Canadian border. It was somewhat of a sickbay, that Dani had had to visit multiple times before and it was probably the house she had spent most of her time in, from the many houses she had had to use over the years. 

But the bliss wore off and her brain inadvertently asked why she was there in the first place. Shreds of memories came flying back to her. 

Latemer had been kidnapped. GRACE in a hallway. Waiting in the desert to get Latemers location. GRACE running towards her, screaming of danger. From then on out it was only brief flashes of Grace, and Dani couldn’t be sure if it was very vivid old memories mixed into new ones because how else would it be possible that the Grace of this timeline grew up to be so much like her Grace – and then it hit her. 

A single image – sad, determined eyes staring at her. She faintly realized that the heart-rate-monitor next to her went haywire, and then passed out again with one thought on her mind ‘Not again!’.


	10. "Dani"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, after a slight delay:   
> A small chapter around Grace - post-action   
> Next chapter will be up soon.

Grace was found a few hours after leaving the crash site, passed out in the shade of a nearby rock. She was taken to the hospital where she was treated for dehydration and her broken ribs and properly woke up a day later. She was set to be released after a few days.

Her superior, Whittaker, flew in to get a full statement of the agent and to update her on what had happened.   
Apparently, an anonymous caller had informed the Vegas PD that an FBI agent was currently under siege by what seemed like a kill-squad. They had given specific coordinates in the desert and PD, who had known that Grace and Sinclair were in the city, informed the Task Force.   
Lucky for Grace, prior to that, Sinclair had called in sick – telling Whittaker that he couldn’t fly because of a stomach-problem and that Grace would stay with him until he was good to go. Whittaker had definitely known that he had lied to protect his partner but even though she had been mad, she didn’t want to have to fire her best agent and letting Sinclair take care of whatever Grace was up to seemed like a good strategy.

Whittaker had called him immediately when she was informed of the situation by the Vegas PD and he had gone to said location, where he found several injured men and traces of a crash, an explosion and a fire fight. He hadn’t seen Grace though, so he continued on after calling it in. He had found her not far away from the crash site, passed out. For a second, he had thought she was dead. He was pretty sure he had never seen her be still.

The much more interesting part to Grace was, what her fellow agents thought she had been doing to get into a precarious situation like that.

All they knew was that Grace had been attacked and hunted through the desert by more than a dozen men with guns, which she had taken out one after another. They had also run the injured men and bodies through all available data bases and realized that they were all linked to Russia and most of them suspected of being Russian operatives. This, of course, was very lucky for Grace because her superiors now assumed, she had been investigating the route that she had been told to investigate – even if she hadn’t followed the orders to come back to base.

Whittaker didn’t even mention the name Daniela Ramos during the briefing. Obviously, Grace knew she had a duty to report all that had happened, but she couldn’t quite bring herself to. She told Whittaker that she would give her statement the next day because she was exhausted.

During the next 24 hours Grace contemplated what it would mean if she didn’t report that she had found Daniela Ramos and - more importantly - why she felt like she shouldn't report the sighting of the woman. She assumed it had to do with almost dying for her and now not being very eager on immediately putting her in the cross-hairs of the Most Wanted-hunting-party of the FBI – all a bunch of cowboys with little regard for the rights of people. She found herself drifting off into wondering where the enigma of a woman was at the moment, if she was ok, if she got medical attention, and weirdly, if the other woman was asking herself the same questions about her.

It was now obvious to Grace that Daniela Ramos, or “Dani” as she was calling her in her head now, had known her for some reason. Maybe she and her organization had kept tabs on the investigation but the first time they had run into each other, Grace hadn’t been appointed lead agent in the case for more than 15 minutes. And that also didn’t explain the very real personal attachment vibes Grace had gotten from the woman. Of course, maybe all that was a little delusional, from the mild concussion of the car crash or the fact that she had been obsessively looking for the woman for 3 weeks now. But Graces instincts were telling her there was more to the story. All sorts of scenarios went on in her head: maybe Grace had been involved in a case that somehow related to Dani before but hadn’t realized it, maybe Dani had thought about recruiting her into her organization, maybe they had met as children or teenagers, maybe they had known each other in another life. When she arrived at that scenario, Grace knew it was time to go to sleep but she did decided that night, that she was going to investigate if or how her and Dani Ramos were connected even before that case.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

For her statement that morning Grace settled on the ‘not remembering what happened’ route, vaguely saying that she remembered wanting to check out the highway Latemer had taken down to Las Vegas and then following a guy off into the desert, only for her memory to cut out at that point – a not entirely unlikely report, trauma-memory being weird and all.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

She arrived at her apartment with Agent Sinclair, now Ryan to her, in tow. He had insisted on picking her up from the hospital and carrying her luggage for her, in a non-condescending kind of way.

When she entered the place, she felt the anxiousness and exhaustion of the past weeks fall away. She liked her flat – she felt at home here, at the outskirts of the city.

It was practical – her fridge was full of the brand of energy drinks and electrolyte beverages she liked. A huge empty whiteboard was mounted to the wall, where the previous tenant had had his TV. She had kept the old tenants couch and very often, during harder cases, she could only fall asleep there, while looking at the clues detailed on her whiteboard. The safe, which held all her guns, was strategically placed in the corner next to the entry of her bedroom. The only thing that could be remotely called decorative was the knife collection she had mounted on her wall. It was meticulously clean, and the big windows let in a lot of light during the evening hours, if the curtains weren’t drawn.

Ryan must’ve thought she would feel lost in such an empty, impersonal space and proceeded to offer her to stay with him and his girlfriend. Grace really needed to stop this budding friendship, she realized, if she wanted to keep the antisocial reputation, that she so loved. Right now though, she was just glad to be home and she told him that. His look was a little doubtful, his eyes casting around the room, but he did leave her to herself after her friendly “Are you gonna go, or what?”.

The thing that she enjoyed most about this place was that it was perfectly set up for home-office investigation, which is what she intended to do.


	11. Impossible familiarity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Both Grace and Dani are in this chapter. Also - they interact.  
> And Graces job gets a lot more interesting.

She goes over every single case she had been lead agent on - nothing stands out, but she is aware that, had she not by sheer coincidence seen and later recognized her, they would have never known Dani was involved in the Latemer case either. 

It helped mildly that she had caught a lot of perpetrators but the unsolved cases, which had always haunted her, now looked even more suspicious. Her research brought up nothing - even when she widened her search to cases she had assisted on during her first years at the FBI robbery unit. There were rarely connections to tech or software, and if there were the cases had been solved. 

She also explored possible personal ties. She went over all the people that had been close to her in her life and checked if there were any possible hidden ties. As far as she could tell, there weren’t any. But how could she know, if Dani was the bigger cousin of one of her playmates when little? 

For the first time after the many injuries she had had sustained during her time at the FBI, she didn't protest when Whittaker told her she would like her to stay on leave to recover a little longer. She had been properly banned from the Latemer investigation anyways, and Grace realized she wasn't in the right head space to take over a new case. 

She spent hours on the floor in front of her couch, staring at old files and crime scene photos, while the hurt in her ribs and head faded with time. But inquisitive, trusting eyes full of sometimes shock and sometimes wonder didn't fade from her mind.

It had been the longest leave she had ever taken, even in comparison to when she had been shot two years ago, when a hostage situation had gone bad. Whittaker took it as a good sign of her clearing her head. 

It had been almost a month of intense, infuriatingly unfruitful home investigation, when the landline that came with the flat, that Grace had never used before and thought was inactive, rang.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

During the two seconds it took her to cross the apartment to the phone mounted on the wall beneath her coat rack, she had two major thoughts. First – instinctually – ‘It’s her.’ and then, even more instinctually – immediate relativizing – ‘Probably the phone company asking if I want to keep the landline, I didn’t even knew I still had’.

“Erikson.” she picked up the phone and was answered with silence. An option she had not considered on her way over. After a few seconds she tried “Sorry, who is this?”, less authority in her voice. Again – silence. She stayed on the phone for long seconds, it might have been minutes and then, almost as a whisper she couldn’t help but ask “Dani Ramos?”.

She heard a person breathe out on the other end of the line, as if they had held their breath until this moment and an equally as silent “Yes.” followed.

Now that she knew for a fact it was her, Grace had suddenly no idea why this phone call would ever happen. She was an FBI Agent, the other woman was a known terrorist. This phone call – in fact – couldn’t happen. She settled on waiting for Dani to say something further. She didn’t.

“Why are you calling me?” she asked, and it sounded harsher than she had intended. Her own thoughts had been occupied with researching a connection between herself and Dani Ramos for the past weeks but the confirmation, that the other was keeping track of her still shocked her. Dani occupied her mind, but she hadn’t been aware she also occupied her life.

“I…” Dani hesitated, as if she hadn’t realized she would have to answer this question, but then continued in a formal tone “I wanted to thank you – for saving us.” It didn’t sound completely convincing.

“Well, I didn’t get around to the part where I arrest you,” Grace answered and a grin spread across her face.

An amused chuckle and “Yeah, sorry ‘bout that”, came from Dani and Grace could immediately picture Dani with a cocky grin on her face, saying that. 

She huffed amusedly and then shuffled awkwardly with her feet, waiting for Dani to say something more but she waited in vain again. Dani stayed silent.

“Well, if that’s all?” Grace said an obvious question in her voice.

“No Wait!” came an immediate response from Dani. “I just…” and she stopped again, struggling for words. 

Grace held the phone closer to her ear, now shallowly breathing. Something in her soul yearned for the other woman to finish that sentence. – and she did.

“I just wanted to make sure that you’re ok.”

The statement lies heavily between them for a few seconds.

Grace was trying to process the vulnerability in Danis voice and then she felt the confusion from the past weeks tumbling down on her.

“See, that! That’s what I don’t get! Why would you even care? How do you know me?” it had sounded more desperate and loud than she wanted it to.

“That’s not… I don’t…” Dani tried to start and then settled on “That’s irrelevant”.

“It’s not irrelevant to me.” Grace answered and continued, almost sounding pleading then growing louder “I’ve spent the past 4 weeks trying to figure out how you might know me. I have never been off work this long. I have run background checks on all my classmates from goddamn kindergarden! There is nothing! I haven’t found a single shred of evidence that you should act like you know me! I sure as hell don’t know you, apart from a most-wanted picture!”. Her breathing grew even faster now. A lot of pent up nervous energy trying to be contained. A lot of confusion. A few seconds passed.

“I can’t.” Dani said, sadness laced in her voice.

“Why?!” Grace almost shouted back.

“I’m sorry, I can’t” Dani said stronger.

“Why?!” came from Grace again.

“You wouldn’t believe me, ok. There is no point in telling you.”

Graces patience, running thin by nature, was running really low now. She felt her heart rate picking up. She felt herself ball her hands to fists in frustration. She had spent the past weeks trying to find out what it is that connected her with Dani Ramos, why the woman had treated her with an impossible familiarity for no reason, and nothing had come up. And now this phone call.

And then – Grace felt like being hit with a truck, with the severity of the thought.. how had she not considered it before? – ‘This woman is toying with me. She wants something’. And the soft spot she had developed for Dani, that had only grown during this phone call, was instantly gone.

Grace saw red. Angry words came rushing out “Whatever kind of mind games you are playing here – you put your money on the wrong fucking Agent! Whatever you think you can get out of me, it won’t happen, lady! There is no fucking way I will help you with anything! Don’t ever call this num..”

„I can’t tell you..“ Dani interrupted and Grace let out a frustrated huff, about to put the phone down for good “…but I can show you. Get a pen and paper.” Dani ordered her and without missing a beat continued, while Grace was scrambling to grab her notebook, all anger forgotten.

“You will need to gain access to the CIA network.” Graces face went from still angry to confused and she started to ask “Wha..” but Dani continued on, as if in a rush, as if to get it out before she could think better of it. “Just – listen! When you have access to the general CIA network, you need to use the following user information Tango, Alpha, Alpha, Nine….” she continued on, first naming fifteen figures and letters that would make up the user name and then doing the same for an equally as long password. “When you’re in, you will look for the two following case files…” figures and letters followed again.

Meanwhile Grace was trying to process what it was that Dani was suggesting. How would a CIA file show her the connection between her and Dani? If there were one documented, wouldn’t the bureau already know about it?

“There will be video files. Just….” a pause, a deep breath “Just look at them – closely. You will see something that’s hard to understand. I’ll call you again, once you’ve seen it. Goodbye.” “Wai..” and the line went dead. Grace stood there, staring at the wall, still holding the phone to her ear and then mumbled the question she had wanted to ask “How am I supposed to get access to the CIA network?”

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Dani blinked at the cell phone in her hand. Had she really just done that? 

Yes, but she hadn’t been able to help herself. Dani had been worried for far too long. 

Back when she was in the sick bay and properly came to, Sarah had told her that Grace had been found and was being treated at the hospital. Dani had even asked Linda to hack the hospital to find out about the severity of Graces injuries. They kept tabs on Graces recovery, and later found out that she had been released. And then their sources in the FBI had reported that Grace had not gone back to work for weeks. Very uncharacteristic behavior, judging by Graces personal file they had acquired in the meantime. It had been weeks of trying to get more information, when Dani just wasn’t able to take it anymore.

And when she finally slipped out of the safehouse, evaded her bodyguard and got her hands on a burner phone, that wasn’t property of OPEW, it had ended up being such a rollercoaster. First hearing Graces voice and realizing she was fine. Followed by far too familiar banter – and then suddenly incredible anger and understandable distrust. It had all been too much to handle and before she could stop herself, she was doing the one thing, she knew she should not. But she couldn’t bear Grace thinking she was trying to use her.

She took the SIM card out of the phone, with still shaky hands broke it in half and pocketed the pieces. On her way back, she trying to think of the right way to tell Sarah about what she had just done. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Grace went back to work the next day. She really wanted to get a look at those files and she wouldn’t get access from staying home for sure. Her contacts at the CIA had never been liberal with access to their network, in fact she had never been granted access to any kind of CIA database - a typical FBI problem. She would have to find the right time and place and cultivate her contacts. Or maybe one of her colleagues had an in.

She came into the office even earlier than usual, to avoid the mandatory applause that one got for being injured in the field. Her workspace was still set up in the task force office. Until she got new orders she would remain there, even if she was officially off the case. Sinclair had kept her updated with new developments on the Latemer case, so she didn’t discover anything new on that front. 

It was around 11:00 when Whittaker found her and motioned her to follow. Grace fell into step next to her. She assumed she was about to be assigned a new case.

“You’re not getting a new case.”

Grace looked at Whittaker conveying confusion, just with the slight tilt of an eyebrow. 

Whittaker pushed the door to a meeting room open where several people were already seated. She recognized the deputy director of the FBI. Three men in civilian clothes were seated on the other side of the table. A man in uniform stood silently in the background. 

She cased the room and her eyes landed on the guy sitting in the middle. Grey-brown haired with a beard that looked unkempt, in his mid-fifties and eyes that seemed both investigative, bored and dangerous at the same time. 

‘CIA’ 

she thought immediately. She knew the type.

Whittaker motioned her to sit down and the deputy director started to speak “As of today the FBI task force working on the Latemer case will be dismissed. Instead there will be an interagency effort taking over.” The information had obviously been for Grace since she was the only one new in the meeting, so she gave a small nod. “This is an operation of utmost importance to the Agencies present. The CIA will take the lead. NSA and FBI will each lend one agent for the task force.”

The bearded guy took over “We want you as our liaison from the FBI.” He looked at Grace. His look was part condescending, part curious. “You’ll be of use at least in a tactical capacity.”

Graces face didn’t move an inch at the covert insult. She just kept looking at him. A few uncomfortable seconds passed. The guy laughed shortly. Then he got up and his colleagues followed. His look was amused on his way out and he said “We leave tomorrow morning, Agent Erikson.” 

Whittaker and the deputy director exchanged disapproving glances. Then he and the uniformed guy left the room as well.  
Grace turned her chair towards Whittaker and raised her eyebrows.

“I know Agent Hill can be kind of..” “..a dick?” Grace finished for her.

“I was going to say ‘hard to work with’ but essentially yes. That doesn’t matter though. You have orders to fully cooperate with him. This comes from very high up. My guess is the government wants to legitimize the CIAs actions here in the case by involving us – also the funds for the operation come from us, so there is that.” Grace huffed. “The CIA has intel that suggests Latemer was transported across borders and is currently in Russia. We’re not yet sure whether the Russian government is behind it or a criminal syndicate. My guess is the CIA knows but wants to keep the upper hand.” She paused shortly “Just so you know – I didn’t recommend you for this. You were just injured, you’re not even on the case anymore and your instincts have failed you constantly when you were, but the CIA has our case report. Hill likes people who can fight. Makes him feel like he is the brain of the operation.” Grace was close to mumbling “Thanks very much” but thought better of it. Her look must’ve conveyed the message. 

“I’m telling you this only so you can make sure to get your head on straight. You can’t get distracted. Don’t go off book and follow any crazy hunches. Stay with Hill, follow orders – in and out. That’s it.” she looked down and then said very seriously “It’s not every day one of us goes international. In fact, it happens so rarely there isn’t really a protocol for when it happens. So you just stick to the plan.” 

Grace wasn’t worried per se but she still was acutely aware that the work she would do in this taskforce was different that the work she did before. On American ground she was an FBI agent – on foreign ground she was no one. But that’s how the CIA operated all the time. She had been long enough in the game to have a concept of how the CIA conducts its business.  
When Whittaker didn’t continue on, Grace asked “So, what is that plan?”. At that Whittaker looked a little uncomfortable.  
“I don’t know exactly.” she paused “You’re going to Russia, somewhere to a small city. Intel has it there should be minimal defenses, so it should be an easy thing to extract Latemer. You will enter the country by private airplane. The manifesto will show you, Agent Hill and Agent Brolin as business assistants to the man the plane belongs to. They have worked with him without trouble before. On the ground you will first go to a safehouse, prepare and then immediately carry out the operation. Wheels up home as soon as possible. That’s all I know.” 

“Great.” Grace said and then decided she should probably polish off her rusty Russian. 

“Go home now. Pack normal clothes and something that you can wear in a tactical situation. You’ll get a vest and a firearm when you land.” 

Graces eyes flashed dangerously at that. She didn’t like to part ways with her gun. The fact that she wouldn’t be able to take it, was setting her on edge.

Whittaker looked at her apologetically but continued without acknowledging it “A car will pick you up and drive you to the airport. We’ll see each other then. You’re dismissed, Agent.”

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Grace was making her way out of the building, the sun beaming down on her, warming her skin, when she saw in the corner of her eye Agent Hills, standing in the shadows and smoking. She had no doubt he had waited for her because he immediately started following her. In the parking lot he appeared right next to her. A move that surely would’ve startled anyone who wasn’t aware they had been followed. Grace didn’t startle. 

“Hi” he said, a smile on his face. It wasn’t friendly or dangerous – it was more of an amused smile. Grace had already realized that being boss amused the guy to no end. 

She nodded at him. 

“Ever worked abroad?” he asked, dragging on his cigarette. “You’ll get the hang of it. Just follow me and you’re fine” Now that sounded condescending and the smile that grew when Graces face betrayed her annoyance, made it really hard for Grace not to punch the guy. 

“I get it, you want to be big man here” she said, dangerously calm, stepping closer to him. She towered slightly above him as she continued “You do that, be my guest. I’ve dealt with assholes like you all my career.” He let out a surprised chuckle, but his eyes betrayed that he was less amused now. “It’s your playground out there, I get it.” she took a small step back, the tension eased a little “I just want to be prepared, I’ll be of most use then. So if you guys have a casefile on the operation, I’d like to see it” she said, all Diligent Government Agent persona.  
Hill looked a little surprised, but made a non-committal, affirmative noise. He dragged his keys out of his jeans and opened the trunk of a car, a few dozen metres across. He walked over there slowly and Grace followed. 

The trunk held two laptop bags, several Case files and a few too many guns, in Graces opinion. It was obvious to her, that the guy got a kick out of “making an impression” on people. She decided she would just ignore the circus for the rest of the operation. He grabbed for a laptop bag but instead of giving it to her, he took out a slim, hard copy of a case file and handed it to her.

Grace schooled her features to not show the disappointment she felt at being that close to getting access to the digital network of the CIA. She took the file, turned round and swiftly walked back to her car.

“See ya tomorrow!” he called after her.


	12. Off

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This one starts out with Grace and then goes to Danis POV. Interesting stuff is starting to happen.

Grace arrived home and immediately went packing. If there is one thing she knew, it’s that plans with the CIA changed all the time. Better be prepared for an early start. She hated it but she locked her service weapon in the safe with her other guns. She was listening to a Russian book in the meantime – trying to iron out any pronunciation kinks by repeating a sentence every few minutes. 

She didn’t trust Hill as far as she could throw him. If she needed, she could get around and hopefully out of Russia into friendly territory on her own. She packed several one-hand knives. No one had said anything about knives, right? 

She was moving around the flat, gathering things, practicing Russian but whenever she stopped to think, her eyes inadvertently found their way back to the mounted landline. She wouldn’t admit it, but she hated the thought of missing a call.

She got in a MA training session with her knives and was about to finish up, when she heard a still foreign and yet familiar ringing. 

She dropped what she was holding, sprinted over and answered with a breathless “Yes?”. 

“You okay there?” Danis voice reached her ears, as they turned pink. She was still breathing heavily from her workout and she must’ve sounded somewhat curious, because Danis voice was filled with honest concern. 

“Oh, yeah.” she tried to even her breathing and said “Sorry, was just working out.” 

Dani didn’t say anything for a while but then started again. 

“I realized I didn’t make sure you could actually gain access to the CIA network. Sorry about that. This wasn’t really a planned thing.” Dani admitted slowly. 

Grace just waited for the woman to keep talking. She hadn’t gotten the impression that any of this had been planned either.

“An associate of mine will be in your area the day after tomorrow.” Dani worded carefully. “They could give you an access point to the CIA database. We would just have to take precautions to keep them safe. They would drop a laptop in a location. You would get the info where it was and you would have to use it within the next 4 hours. After that it would automatically reformat. It should be enough time to make sure it holds an actual connection to the CIA network and to view the files.” 

Graces eyes had widened in shock. She hadn’t expected that. Dani gave her a few moments to process and then said tentatively “You don’t have to do it. I just thought..”

“No, yes. I get it. It would be really helpful.” Grace interrupted and then continued “but I can’t. I won’t be in town then.” She was careful to keep the information vague. It was one thing, having strange phone conversations with a national enemy and another thing to give them information. “Back at work, huh?” Grace could hear a smile on Danis lips. 

“Yes.” Grace answered. 

“New case?” Dani asked. 

“No, actually. But I would really rather you didn’t ask me about that.” Grace said mildly defensively. 

“There are new developments in Michaels case?” Dani sounded surprised and truly worried. Back in the Nevadan desert Grace had already gotten the impression that Dani and Michael must’ve been somewhat close.

“I will not tell you anything about that.” Grace said, with a strong voice, not defensively but definitively now. 

“Mike is a friend. I just want to know that he is fine. If you know where he is, I could help get him out.” Dani said rapidly. 

“Stop.” Grace said. Her voice was sad now, a little defeated. 

“I can’t tell you” she said silently. “but I will get him back - trust me. But I won’t be your mole in the FBI” and then pressed the off button on the phone before Dani could stop her.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Dani stared at the phone in her hand. Then she hurled it against an unsuspecting tree. She whispered Spanish curses at herself for pushing Grace, as she started into a jog towards the hut.

She barged into the main office, which held Lindas tech-station and Sarahs bar. Both of which were of incredible importance for the success of OPEW. 

Both of their heads snapped up at the loud noise, with Sarah having a gun trained at Danis head, faster than she could make out who she was.  
Then Sarah let out an unhappy huff and dropped the gun onto the table in front of her. 

“What’s with the rush?” she asked, peak annoyance in her voice.

“The FBI know where Mike is!” Dani got out in between fast breaths. 

A surprised “What?!” came from Lindas direction. She shuffled over to her PC to check something. “I got no alert that anything in the FBI files changed. Why would you think they know where he is?” 

The silence from Dani was answer enough for Sarah. 

“Lemme guess? A birdie told you – blonde? piercing eyes? tall like a tree?” she chuckled amusedly and at the same time disapprovingly. 

“She didn’t want to tell me.. but I am sure they know where Mike is.” 

Linda had started tapping away on her keyboard. They had access to the FBI database with less trouble than the people who actually worked there. 

“Weird” Linda said, more to herself. 

“What is it, Babe?” Sarah asked. 

“There aren’t any new entries in the case files. Nothing to suggest new developments.” 

They all looked similarly confused for a second. 

“Ok, check the CIA.” Dani said. 

“Also no new entries to Mikes casefile.” 

Linda held up her hand to prevent Dani and Sarahs questions and tapped away. 

“Gotcha!” she shouted and then turned the screen towards Dani and Sarah.

“Someone was trying to hide this inside the network. I would’ve gone right past it if I wasn’t currently beta-testing my keyword analyzer plug-in.” Both Sarah and Dani were looking at her expectantly, not very interested in the technological background of Lindas brilliance. So she continued “A new interagency task force was created. NSA, FBI and CIA. CIA is taking the lead so I assume Michael isn’t in the US anymore. Let me unlock this file real quick and we’ll know more.”

While waiting, Dani tapped her foot impatiently until Sarah kicked her slightly. 

“Ok, the CIA think Mike is in a small city south of Moscow, held at the estate of an oligarch – Andrey Petrov. Three agents will be sent there tomorrow to extract Michael. Minimal resistance is expected.” Linda summed up, while she was reading the file. “I assume your Grace will be one of them.”

“Do we think we can get there before them?” Dani asked. 

“Doubtfully, but maybe” came from Linda.

“Or, we don’t even try” said Sarah and continued quickly because the look Dani was giving her screamed What The Hell, “We don’t really want to risk running into operatives of three government agencies. But – Minimal resistance, right? It will be a piece of cake for Grace to get Michael out. Then we get a message to Michael and he slips out and away from the Task Force himself. Added bonus points if Someone will finally have a mission without getting hurt.” she sent a pointed look towards Dani. 

“I don’t know.” Dani said doubtfully. “Grace knows that Mike works with us. Could be that she’ll keep an eye on him too closely”. 

Sarah made dismissive sound, “Well if push comes to shove, we have more people in Russia than any American intelligence agency. If Mike can’t get out, we’ll surround them during transport – with enough manpower on our side they won’t fight back. We take Mike. No one gets hurt. And You wouldn’t even need to be there.”

Dani still looked doubtful. In her mind she already decided that, should it come to that, she would be the one to lead her operatives to retrieve Michael from the task force. She couldn’t risk a trigger-happy recruit getting out of hand, if Grace was on the other side. But she also agreed that it would be extremely hard to beat the Task Force to Mikes location or avoid running into them. If Mike could actually slip out on his own, once rescued by Grace and her team, that would be perfect. 

She pondered this for a while, while Sarah poured them all a drink and Linda tapped away on her keyboard. 

Dani shook herself out of thought, then nodded “Ok, let’s do it that way. Linda, when can I get going?” 

During the following hours an intricate network of local smugglers, sympathizing private airplane owners and bribed government officials was set into motion and Dani left with Ron and two others in tow for Russia. Once there they would gather their troops and set up a base close, but not too close, to the relevant location.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Danis eyes were getting heavy and her head was resting against the airplane window. She had been reading and re-reading the short CIA-file on the operation to extract Michael. Worrying about him had taken its toll. Now she had gotten too pushy with Grace and their lines of communication were tainted. Just a day ago she had thrown all caution in the wind just so that Grace didn’t think she was being used by her and now she thought it even more so. And now in a way they were using her. 

Danis thoughts eerily mirrored the darkness of the clouds outside the plane. She hated the thought of Grace being in danger. She had hated the thought even when they first met, but Dani had been powerless to keep anyone from danger back then. 

Her thoughts took her to memories less visited - of her brother and her father, who had been gone a long time now and yet the pain had only slightly dulled. More than anything it had become part of Dani - just like the pain of losing Grace had shaped her and become part of her too. A dark part, that didn’t like to let people close, much less protect her in fear of losing them. 

Ever since she’d seen Grace in Mikes apartment complex that pain - she had become so accustomed to it, she didn’t even know she still carried it - had become lighter and lighter. Phone calls in the dark just to hear Graces voice were so amature, Dani couldn’t believe she had risked it. But secretly she knew that dumb courage was born out of that newfound lightness. But the lightness was accompanied by something more. Something grey and big and claustrophobic. Worry, no - fear - that this Grace would find her end just as violently as her Grace had. Whyyyy did she have to get a job in law enforcement!? Couldn't she just be a cute barista?! Dani sighed and chuckled at herself. Of course she went into law enforcement. Protecting was her nature. Finally her eyes grew heavy enough to close and she fell asleep to the memory of Grace holding her on the back of a truck, many years ago in Mexico. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Half a day later, Dani and her three lieutenants were commanding a 12 person team from their go-to private security firm in the area. They were hiding out in an empty farmhouse, 15 minutes away from the place Mike was being kept at. It took all of Danis willpower not to march her little army in there and just take him back. But she really needed to avoid running into Graces task force. She was afraid Grace would be too stubborn to back down from a fight but with three versus sixteen people Graces odds weren’t really good. Of course, Dani would never let that happen, but in the private silence of her heart Dani feared almost as much that Grace would never forgive her, if she took Michael by force, even if Grace and her team were just let go and dropped off at the next bus stop.

The mobile command centre in front of Dani, consisting of several screens and a military grade satellite phone, wasn’t showing any signs of a car coming in or out of the estate. They had hacked a street camera positioned a few kilometres away from it on the only street leading to the estate. Two of her men were also positioned closeby. They were the ones supposed to signal Michael, once rescued, to attempt an escape from the FBI, and that they would be there to pick him up once he did. 

Suddenly, a grey Nissan came into view of the street camera and Dani could clearly see two men with guns in the front and the shadow of a woman of Graces frame in the back.  
Dani knew all she had to do now was wait but her heart had started beating as if she herself was going to war. She read and re-read the intel-report. “Minimal security”. She was kept in her seat and away from that estate only because of those two words. She knew Grace could handle herself and certainly something titled “minimal security”. ‘Then again, she doesn’t have metal plates under her skin anymore’ came the unhelpful input from inside Danis own brain. She jumped out of her seat but at Rons questioning look she just started pacing in circles. She knew Grace and her team must’ve reached the compound by now.

Dani was ripped out of her worried pacing by the ringing of the command-centres phone. It was Linda “Dani, something is off here. I did a deep dive into the two agents on mission with Grace and one of them received an uncharacteristically large amount of money -and I mean LARGE - just this morning onto a very hard to trace account that only started existing a few days ago.” 

Danis stomach plummeted - if she wasn’t used to incredible stress she might have vomited then and there. 

“We’re not sure what it means” Linda continued but Dani was already halfway out of the house, barking orders to get armed and going.


	13. God of war and new beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Badassery x2 and moving forward in the story? Here we go!  
> I really hope you'll like where I'm going with this.

Grace was wearing black tactical gear and a bullet proof vest, two hand guns strapped to her thighs, one in her hand. The knives she had taken from home were spread out onto easy access points. One flat throwknife she had taped to her lower leg. 

To anyone not in the business of rescue missions and attacks she would have looked armed to her teeth. Yet Grace had been very unhappy when the “gear” Whittaker had told her she would get from Hill once in Russia had barely been tactical. No assault rifles, no stun grenades or real grenades or even a helmet.  
‘I should’ve just packed my own’ she thought now, as she was approaching the estate by foot. They were running, ducking low, towards the back entry of the estate, their breath fogging in the cold air of spring. The intel had said Latemer would be somewhere in the centre of the huge house, on the ground floor. 

Grace wiped her mind clean then. No space for regrets or worries or hesitation. Rescue the kidnapped – this was why she was here. This was what she was good at.

There wasn’t a guard at the back door and when they entered a dark entry hall it was filled with old furniture that was covered by linens. The room was only brightened by the cold light coming from the few windows. The ceilings were tall and the walls thick. Grace was covering the right side, Hill was moving in the middle and Wilson covered the left side. They moved forward silently through the room and Hill gestured for them to go through the door leading further into the house.

The door was slightly ajar and Grace moved it little by little. Wilson looked through the gap and gestured her ok. She opened the door fully and they moved in. They moved throughout the room, securing that there wasn’t anyone behind the old furniture, or the huge white concrete columns that held the house upright or in any hidden corners. After giving the ‘clear’ signal they gathered to move towards the next door. 

This one was closed. Grace instructed the others by using a few short signals. She would open the door quickly – which would be loud but still allow them the element of surprise. Wilson would move in first then Hill then Grace. It should be an easy thing to subdue a few guards with the element of surprise. 

She held three fingers of her left hand up to signal Wilson when she would open the door. She counted down 3, Wilson looked ready, 2 Wilson focused on the door, 1 Grace tore open the door, Wilson moved forward guns raised, meanwhile something started moving to Graces side. She saw in the corner of her eye as Hill moved in the opposite direction towards a door at the side of the room. Almost at the same time she heard Wilsons gun fire and then several assault rifles come to life in the next room. She jumped out from behind the door pushing Wilson out of the doorframe with her as bullets whizzed through it. They were taking cover at the wall next to the door now. Even though from the sound of it the people inside were firing at the wall as well. 

‘Kill squad’ was the word that appeared in Graces mind. Wilson was looking at her shocked for a second but got his bearings quickly. The firing stopped, no bullets were coming through the doorway now. Grace could hear people moving towards the door. 

The first one came through and Wilson and Grace shot him both before he could put his finger on the trigger of his raised assault rifle. Then the next one came. Grace and Wilson were now moving away from the wall further back into the room. They had to get out and falling back seemed like the only way. Several people at once appeared in the doorway, taking cover behind fallen furniture. A firefight ensued. Grace and Wilson were using the big concrete columns as cover. Ducking low behind the columns to make a small target once they leaned out of their cover to shoot. They were taking out assailants one by one. But once some were down, more came from the other room.

Wilson caught her eye for a moment and then gestured to fall back further. She leaned slightly out from behind her column and started shooting to give him cover as he dove behind the column next to the door that lead to the room with the exit.

She felt the force of the impact first, ripping her back - then a searing pain in her right shoulder. She dropped the gun in her right hand and let out more of a war cry than a cry of pain. Wilson was now shooting back at the assailants, giving her cover and yelled for her to reach the last column next to the door as well. She did.

Both Wilson and her had taken a lot of ammo with them but they were already running out. Wilson was looking her way shortly and saw her wound. Her only weapon now in her left hand. Her right arm trying to support the left when shooting. He yelled “You go, I’ll cover you!” and she jumped from behind the column and through the door taking cover behind the wall of the next room.

She was about to give Wilson cover to follow her when she saw someone move behind him. She fired and yelled but it was too late. Hill must’ve hidden in a far corner of the room and had now shot Wilson from behind. Grace emptied her magazine in the direction of Hill but he had disappeared again and she couldn’t reach him without losing her cover. 

She silently moved behind a solid looking tipped over table towards the middle of the room. 

The door to the outside seemed impossibly far away now, without anyone giving her cover. But despair wasn’t in Graces nature. 

She turned away from the door again towards her assailants that were now shooting through the doorframe into her room, taking cover behind the walls next to the door. And cover they needed. She delivered them hell with only one hand. Every bullet she used found its target. They had to because she was now down to her last two clips.

She felt herself getting a little drowsy and realized that the bullet must’ve hit an artery, because she was losing blood too quickly for it to be a clean through and through. The corners of her view were getting hazy but she still fired back. She was down to her last clip. While she was reloading they moved into her room. Now more assailants than bullets left. 

She readied herself to empty her last clip when suddenly the entry door burst open, bullets started flying from behind her hitting her assailants, who were now taking cover again and moving back the way they came from, abandoning their mission and moving back towards the middle of the house. The shooting seized. 

Grace turned around just in time to see Dani step through the door - braided hair, a gun raised, surrounded by a little army. The room was now being secured by these people that were apparently at Danis command. 

Danis eyes – a second before cold as ice, now openly frightened – were moving through the big room, searching for something. And she found it – staring back at her with wide eyes – Grace.

Dani ran towards her, kneeling in front of her – hands hovering over but not touching her body as if she was scanning for injuries. Her eyes then zeroed in on the dark wet stain of blood at Graces shoulder. She hadn’t seen it on the dark shirt immediately. 

“You were shot” Dani said, her tone filled with terror but also accusation. Grace had been a little dazed before but Danis sudden appearance and the change of her odds of survival cleared her mind. 

“Could be worse. Probably a through and through.”

“We need to get you out of her”, Dani said. Grace was now looking around at the little army of people. Two were wounded but the rest was securing the room expertly. 

“No, we need to get Latemer! We only found him because they used him to lead us here, we aren’t ever going to get a chance to find him again!” Graces eyes held steel within them.

But Danis did too “And I will do that! You’re just not going with me.”

“Yes, I am.” said Grace and her handgun was now suddenly pointed at Dani.

“Grace,” Dani backed away a little, raised her hands in a calming manner, “there are ten guns pointed at you right now. What’s the plan here?” 

Graces eyes blinked and she looked around at a whole room of guns pointed at her, as if before she hadn’t thought of that. Blood loss was a fucker like that. 

Suddenly there were angry tears in her eyes as she lowered the weapon “That asshole Hill shot Wilson from behind! I won’t settle for anyone else putting a bullet in him! And I will not let you take Michael Latemer away before I can reassure myself he isn’t being kidnapped again”

Maybe it was seeing Grace battered and bruised, like so often before, with tears in her eyes, or the iron will that shone threw her eyes, or the still evident distrust that made Dani nod her head slightly “Fine, but you stay close to me.” 

Grace nodded her head and then Dani was helping her up. Thankfully, Dani turned away to exchange a few words with three men, one of which Grace recognized as Ron, because she had to work really hard not to fall right back to floor. Then one of the men started barking orders in Russian. And then their little battalion started moving forward towards the centre of the house. Grace steeling herself. 

Dani was in the middle with Grace to her right, surrounded by her men. They all had their weapons raised, moving, light-footedly, forward. 

They moved through several rooms, including the one where the ambush had waited. After minutes of securing each room they arrived at the biggest room yet, resembling an aula or a hall. Once brilliant decorations ordained the walls that were double the room height and held balconies looking down from the second floor. Dani was about to order them all back into cover when red laser dots appeared at the chests of her team and a booming, yet familiar voice, echoing through the vastness of the room called “Surrender!”.

Bright lights were now turned on and they could see a dozen snipers positioned at the balconies. Two double doors swung open at the other end of the hall and several armed people came through. In the midst of them, walking towards them with a smile, his hands open as if to welcome them, was Michael Latemer.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

_Five month ago_

_Michael Latemer wasn’t a loner in the original sense of the term. He wasn’t happier alone and loved the few people that were close to him. He thought of himself more as a loner in an intellectual kind of way. He did spent time with people, if only to secretly laugh about their whimsical emotions, their illogical interpretations of the world, which they hilariously thought were logical. But it truly was a lonely life. So when a mysterious fugitive named Dani Ramos came into his life and told him she could explain the principle of his newest invention without ever having seen it before, and in fact, was able to do it, he was intrigued. She told him that his invention, if completed, would change the face of the world forever – and not in a good way. Of course, Michael wasn’t just going to stop building his lifes work. He had started building it to finally experience true companionship. An AI that was just as logical as he deemed himself to be. And yet he was interested in all of the things that this woman seemed to know, even though they hadn’t happened yet, like certain features of his invention that he had only privately mulled over once or twice. So, he agreed to meet her in the Nevandan desert, to find out properly what she was talking about._

_Once there she told him an incredible story of time-travelling robots, that wanted to bring about the end of the world. He was about to laugh her off, when she invited him to see for himself. He hacked his own way into the CIA network from their mobile command centre in the desert, just to be safe it wasn’t a hoax, and viewed files that showed him incredible events and an incredible machine all powerful and all knowing, which Ramos called Rev-9._

_That night, as everyone was sleeping he slipped back into the hut with the mobile command centre and sat in front of the screens, his eyes wide like a curious child._

_If Ramos was right, He would be the one to create this incredible monster, this all-knowing, invincible, terrible immortal, this god of war and destruction. Latemers vision got blurred and when he closed his eyes tears of awe ran down his face. He, Michael Latemer, would create a god. He got so close to the screen now, his head was pressing against it and with shaking fingers he gently caressed the image of the Rev-9. It was so beautiful. A god of war and new beginnings who would stamp out the scourge that was humanity on the planet and create a new world of pureness and logic in the image of Latemers dreams. He didn’t believe for one second that the AI would destroy the earth in the future. Nature would surely flourish again, when reigned over by a logical, pure being such as this._

_He spent the rest of the night watching and re-watching footage of the Rev-9 as it was barely slowed down by Danis futile, laughable attempts to shoot it in the lot of the border-control facility. And he watched the footage from outside a dam and on a Mexican highway and watched closely as a blonde woman, a bionic, who bled but had metal within her skin, fought the Rev-9 to no avail. ‘She must’ve been what killed him in the end’ he thought suddenly, and a certain, incredible hate filled Latemers chest for this woman._

_Whatever she was, she was tainted by the humanity, the flesh that tore and the blood that flowed out of her wounds. She was tainted by her anger and pain. She was nothing compared to the god she faced._

_He was only torn out of his reeling, when the door of the hut was opened in the morning and Dani and Linda stepped through, very surprised to see him. He must’ve looked like a deer in the headlights. For a second he thought he should run but then Dani came over to him with an empathic look on her face and put her hand on his shoulder “Don’t worry, we won’t let it happen.” And he realized that she must think the tears on his face were for the human lives to be lost. He decided then and there that he would need to stop Danis efforts no matter the cost. ‘Let’s start with gaining her trust’ he thought to himself. He turned to her and embraced her. ‘Maybe she will lead me to the blonde’._

_First, he convinced them that his actually useless partner, would be able to finish the prototype on his own and that was why he had to keep working with him and on it._

_Then he learned all that he could from Dani and Sarah about the Rev-9 and the time it had been here before. He hated how cagey they were, whenever he would bring up the blonde. They would both shut him down every time but still mistook it as friendly interest. Also, as to how the Rev-9 died no one said a word. He assumed it meant the blonde had killed him._

_It wasn’t hard for him to pretend – after that first night when they found him crying, nobody suspected him. And he could keep up the façade. He must, in order to protect his child who would grow into a god in his image._

_It was almost time for him to disappear with the prototype when he caught a muted conversation between Dani and Sarah on the phone where they raised a glass to someone called Grace. A gut feeling told him this must be the blonde woman! He spent hours at night trying find anything on the OPEW network on a Grace and in the furthest corner of the system, secured by several layers of encryption there was a folder that was created by Sarah several years ago, called Grace. He decrypted it within that night and was presented with an FBI personal file. ‘That bitch was infiltrating the FBI – that’s why she wasn’t here’, he thought to himself._

_Now that he knew her real name it was childsplay to find out exactly where in the FBI she worked and thus a plan was born._


	14. Goddamn proud of it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We finally meet Michael Latemer in the present.   
> And our heroines find themselves in a bit of a predicament.
> 
> First Graces POV then Danis.

“Daniela, I don’t remember inviting you to this party”, was what Latemer said once he stopped a few metres away from them, still with a polite grin on his face but his eyes showed darkness. 

“Lower your weapons.” he commanded towards Dani and her people. Dani gave a small nod towards them and they lowered their weapons. Only Graces weapon was still raised at the man next to Latemer – Hill. 

Latemers look followed the trajectory of her weapon and landed on Hill. In a mock understanding tone, he said “Yes, I’m quite disappointed in him too.” 

At that Hills look changed from satisfied smirk to a nervous grimace “This isn’t my fault! I swear I hid the file – just like you told me! Ramos shouldn’t have been able to find out about this!”

Latemer stared at him dangerously and after a few seconds turned to Grace and said nonchalantly “If you want, you can shoot him, Agent Erikson.” 

Grace didn’t move a muscle, just kept her weapon up. As much as she wanted to shoot Hill – right now it seemed like a bad idea to waste a bullet on him – ‘also maybe don’t do what the psychopath fake-kidnapping-victim tells you to do’. Her thoughts chased through her head at seemingly full speed only to come to screeching halts every time a new burst of pain came from her shoulder. Graces head swam with possibilities of why someone would fake being kidnapped and lure three Agents from different American law enforcement agencies to an abandoned estate in Russia. Also weren’t Latemer and Dani allies? By the looks of it now they weren’t anymore.

“SO illogical.” burst out of Latemer “Why do you threaten him with a gun if you don’t intent to kill him?” Latemer laughed, disdain shining through. 

Next to her, Grace could see Danis hands ball themselves into fists. The shock and disbelief that had ruled her face for the last few moments was now replaced with fury.   
Grace heard a dark chuckle coming from Dani that also drew Latemers attention to her.

“You son of a bitch” Dani said disbelief in her voice. “You were never kidnapped. And you sold us out! Those men in the desert – they knew we were there because of you. What is it they wanted? The prototype?”

“Oh Dani – Dani, Dani, Dani“ he shook his head and walked slowly toward her. “That’s exactly what I did. You think Legion will bring the end of world? I think it is its only hope.” 

Shock was written all over Dani at those words – even if Grace had no idea what they meant. Faintly she remembered Ron telling her Dani was only trying to save the world. Maybe this was about a weapon? Right now though, her thoughts were getting more scrambled and her shoulder screamed at her to put her arm down – she tried her best to keep it up to steady the left who was still holding the gun trained at Hill. 

A faint grunt of pain escaped her as she dropped her hurt arm, to get a clearer mind. She was an acceptable shot with only her left hand as well.

The movement drew Latemers attention back to her and her wound. He eyed it suspiciously and then said  
"I thought you'd be stronger." 

Graces face changed to disbelieving shock. If the situation wasn't so dire there would’ve been a little offense there too. 

“What do you want from me?” the words rushed out of her angrily.

“Oh, you must already know..“ he started silently but then started shouting while rushing towards Grace “You killed him – and I won’t let you get away with it! I WILL BUILD HIM AGAIN AND YOU WON’T BE THERE TO STOP HIM ANYMORE”. He stopped shortly before her, pointing his finger at her, breathing heavily.

Dani had moved closer and shouted “STOP! It wasn’t her! I did it – I killed it! And I am goddamn proud of it!” 

At that Latemer laughed – heartily – and yet it was an evil sound. 

“YOU? You could never! He would have ripped you to pieces before you could even try to touch him!”

“But I did!” Dani said and then continued, pointing towards Grace “And that is the not woman you saw on those surveillance tapes. She has nothing to do with any of this!”

“DO YOU THINK I’M AN IDIOT?!” Michael screamed at Dani, saliva spraying the ground before him. “SHE HASN’T AGED A DAY SINCE THEN!”

He then turned to Grace, moving into her space to look at her face. “Remarkable” he said silently. But he was so close to her now that he saw the cold sweat forming on her forehead, that her body was shaking from exhaustion, the paleness of her skin, the blood dripping from her fingertips to the floor, the unfocused eyes. He had seen tapes of her doing incredible things with injuries much worse than this.

He squinted at her for a second and then violently grabbed her shoulder, pushing his thumb into the bullet wound. 

Incredible, agonizing white hot pain. 

Grace screamed. 

Dani tried to get to her but was held back by two of Latemers men. She was straining against them, cursing Latemer in spanish.

When he finally stopped his face showed nothing but utter confusion. He turned, looking at Dani “What is this?” and then quickly sidestepped as Graces tall frame came falling towards him, hitting the ground without break.

“Pathetic” he said, as he looked down at her head next to his shoes.

Then he looked at one of his men “I’m not quite ready for her to die yet. Get her ready for transport.” 

Dani had stopped fighting Latemers men and was trying to sound calm “Where are you taking her?” she demanded.

“Oh, don’t worry – you’ll come too.” 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

She’d been riding in the back of a transporter van for hours now, Michaels goons all around her. Her own men had been tied up and left behind at the Petrov estate. 

The past hours she had tried to understand how she could have been fooled by Michael so spectacularly. She went over all their interaction, all the information they had given him and what they had not given him – like Graces name or how the Rev-9 was killed. But he had spun his own version of events. How had she not seen that the guy was a lunatic?   
Why hadn’t she been suspicious when he convinced them to let him keep working on the prototype? While her head hurt from the constant loop of thoughts on how this was possible, she was sick to her stomach when thinking about Grace being dragged into this. However way Latemer had found her, he had planned all of this to get to her and Dani had let her walk right into his trap.

Now more than ever before she realized what she had told Michael was the truth – this Grace wasn’t her Grace from years ago. She didn’t have steel beneath her skin. This Grace hadn’t lived through a brutal war, the end of the world, was gravely injured and endured enhancements of her body. And yet she felt so familiar. The way she fought, she moved, the way she protected people, the way she looked at Dani – just like in the beginning – with faint familiarity. ‘She must’ve been mirroring me’ Dani thought. 

It was then that Dani swore to herself she would do everything in her power to save Grace. The time had finally come to repay the favor. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

They drove through the night and a good part of the next day. They could’ve easily crossed a border, but Dani couldn’t be sure of it and if so which. 

She had stopped trying to get Michaels people to talk. Nobody answered her questions about Grace or where she was or if they were taking them to the same location. At some point one of the men had snapped and yelled at her that he would tape her mouth shut if she didn’t shut up and Dani had stayed silent from then on out. She wouldn’t get any information from them.

When they finally stopped Dani was blindfolded before exiting the van. There was no sound of cars around, only the sound of a lone bird calling. She smelled dried cow dung and their vans exhaust. She felt gravel and sometimes grass beneath her feet and shortly before they entered a building she could hear a door from a nearby house open. They entered a building that smelled of old concrete and dust and Dani was led underground into a basement.

When Latemers men finally took off the blindfold they had their guns raised. Not that Dani would’ve attempted to escape then. She hadn’t found out where Grace was being held and she sure as hell would not leave without her.

The men left her there. 

The basement had obviously been prepared to hold someone prison and Dani felt herself getting sick at the thought that it was meant for Grace.

The basement was completely empty apart from the narrow wooden stairs that led to the door, a mattress in the corner, plastic cups,a few plastic bottles of water and some energy bars. The concrete ground had been recently swept and scrape-marks and discoloration led Dani to believe that there had been furniture in this basement not long ago. A small basement window, only a few centimeters below the ceiling was freshly bolted shut from the inside with metal bars. This was the first thing Dani inspected. The bolts that mounted the metal bars to the window were screwed in completely. Dani dragged the mattress underneath the window and could now reach the bars. She gave an experimental tug but not even a sound came from them. Nothing moved. Now using all her weight she pulled at them again, basically doing a pull-up but nothing moved. 

She huffed in annoyance and went on inspecting the stairs and every inch of the room just in case some kind of tool, weapon or something that could be used as such was left behind. After exhausting all her other options she crept up the stairs, trying really hard not to make any noise. The door atop of the stairs had obviously been recently replaced. It was an aluminum door and the handle on the inside had been removed. She pushed lightly against the door and heard the lock resist against her push.  
She didn’t want to alert anyone standing guard to her doings. She wouldn’t be surprised if Michael had told his men to rough her up a little if she tried to escape and she couldn’t afford being hurt before finding Grace and getting them out of here. 

As she sat down on the mattress, back in its corner again, she felt the exhaustion of the past days wash over her. She leaned her head against the wall, just because it felt so heavy and then she was asleep.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

The room was dark when a noise from outside the door startled Dani awake. She jumped to her feet, rubbed her eyes and cursed herself silently for falling asleep. A flicker of light still came through the small window maybe from something like a porch light.

Then the light of the basement came on and Dani squinted at the harshness of it. The door opened and her heart almost stopped. Two men were carrying an unconscious Grace downstairs, her arms around their shoulders, her feet dragging on the floor. Dani had started moving towards them but stopped when an armed guy behind them barked at her not to move. He kept his gun on her, while they dragged Grace over to the mattress and layed her down, rather gently, considering they were her kidnappers.

The two that had carried Grace went back upstairs, and the guy with the gun followed them, his back towards the exit, his gun still raised at Dani. 

The second the door closed Dani was at Graces side. Grace was still looking pale but from what Dani could tell had received medical care. The wound was bandaged, and she didn’t feel feverish.   
The lights went out again but Dani could still see with the moonlight coming through the window. Hands shaking Dani brushed some hair from Graces face, while mumbling “I’m so sorry”. 

She almost jumped a meter back when Grace suddenly answered, “Not really your fault.”

Graces voice was hoarse but when she opened her eyes they were clear – not recently woken up.

After taking a couple of deep breaths Dani very constructively asked “You’re awake?”. 

Now Graces eyes showed a hint of amusement. She then sat up against he wall, slightly grimacing as she moved her shoulder.

Dani was back at her side, hovering next to her again as if she wanted to help but thought better of it. 

Grace looked at Dani then, seeing the honest worry “It really isn’t your fault. He said I killed someone and.. well.. I have killed people” and with bitter regret in her voice she added “If you’re unlucky it’s part of the job.”

Dani started shaking her head, as she sat down next to Grace on the mattress.

“I promise this isn’t about any of that.” she said silently.


	15. The woods

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm back kinda - sorry it took so long! 
> 
> This one goes out for all the survivalists out there ;)   
> It has got some action and some nice moments between Dani and Grace.

Grace looked at her intently. When, after a few seconds, Dani didn’t say anything further, Grace let out an exasperated “You have to know that you need to elaborate on that.” and Dani knew that Grace was right. She deserved to understand why she was targeted and kidnapped by a madman.   
But telling her now about time travel and an alternate version of herself dying, without even the possibility to show her proof, would do nothing but push her away from Dani. And while Dani knew strategically that that would be a bad thing because they needed work together on getting out of this situation, Dani couldn’t even stand to think about Grace looking at her like she was a crazy person or worse, thinking that Dani knowingly made up a conspiracy theory, which involved Grace, just to gain followers for her organization.

So Dani just looked at her sadly and said “I can’t right now - not without showing you”. And Graces face goes from exasperation to resignation and she silently nods her head. Grace was staring straight ahead now, Dani right next to her, trying to look at her and the energy in the room shifted in a way that Dani didn’t know if she hadn’t lost Grace anyways just then. 

Grace closed her eyes, leaning her head against the wall behind her, her breathing shallow. Dani realized she had never seen Grace this tired.   
So she decided to let her rest, leaning her head against the wall as well. There wasn’t a way out of this room right now anyways.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

At some point after that frustrating exchange Dani had dozed off only to be woken by Graces voice, right next to her - actually really really close to her. Only then Dani realized that her head was leaning on something solid and her left arm was transferring pleasant warmth from another body to her own. 

Her head shot up from where it was lying on Graces shoulder only for it to collide with the wall behind her. “What were you saying?” Dani mumbled, masking the pained grimace, and she thought she saw something like amusement glinting in Graces eyes for a second and something eerily resembling fondness, but that would just be a trick of the moonlight, shining through the window. 

“I said ‘What is it that you can tell me?’” Grace repeated, her features now not betraying much but something akin to patience.

Dani took a second to think but then started “Michael Latemer is building something extremely dangerous.” “A war AI” Grace supplied and Dani nodded her head “yes, and more than that. I thought we had recruited him to stop the development of it but seeing as we’re locked in a basement right now, I think he didn’t mean it” she lets out a disappointed chuckle and for a second she saw sympathy in Graces eyes. Dani continued “He thinks you’re responsible for a similar AI not succeeding, but actually it was me who killed it”. 

Right at that moment the door burst open and the lights turned on and a red-faced Michael Latemer charged down the stairs right at Dani, dragging her body up by her neck “YOU LIE - ALL YOU DO IS LIE!!” but before he could punch her with his raised fist, Grace turned him around, using his arm as leverage. The arm was now bent against his back and he let out a whimper of pain when Grace increased the pressure “Don’t touch her!” she said sharply but two men with guns trained at her and Dani had already entered the room and shouted for her to let him go. She did and Latemer stumbled forward, holding his arm. Somehow Dani found herself halfway shielded behind Graces body, who had put herself between her and the aggressors. 

Once Latemer was standing upright again he pointed his finger at Grace “You wait!! Right now you’re protecting her but you don’t know what she did to you! You have no idea what is going on right now which tells me she must’ve messed with your memory - maybe a new memory card?!” he said, while grinning evilly at Dani who was now next to Grace. Shifting back his focus on Grace he spat out “You have no idea what she’s done to you! Or what you even are!” and then after a few seconds, in an eerily calm voice, he continued “You’ll see soon enough. Even if I hate you for what you did - doesn’t mean you can’t join me and make up for your sins.” 

He nodded his head to his men and they started grabbing Graces arms to drag her upstairs. 

“Grace!” Dani tried to go after them but the weapon that was quickly pointed at her, stopped her in her tracks. She locked eyes with Grace and saw them hold something akin to reassurance in them. What reassurance though? ‘I’ll come back for you’, ‘I trust you, not him’, ‘I won’t let you be killed’, ‘I won’t be killed’? And just as quickly as that the room was dark again and the locks clicked into place.

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

Grace managed to shake the goons off “I’m going, I’m going” and Latemer nodded at them, giving the ok for her to step through the door upstairs into the room on her own. Grace heard the locks click back into place. The room in front of her was barely the size of a container, a desk next to the entry held a computer and a coffee-maker. Several mobile heaters lined the walls. Another door went out the back way. Graces trained eyes did a sweep of the place within seconds but she couldn’t see any weapons or anything else that could incapacitate all three of her captors before they could shoot her. So she just stopped in the middle of the room and stood, waiting for the crazy man to do whatever he wanted with her here. 

To her surprise he guided her to the computer, motioning for her to sit down in front of it. “No connection to the outside on this one, sorry. Also don’t even think about running out of here, my men are all over this place” he said and Grace couldn’t detect any malice or ridicule in his tone for the first time. 

“Click the play button” he told her and Grace did - secretly hoping to finally find out what this all was about. The first video was a night vision camera scene of the front of some kind of industrial building. Grace recognized Dani appearing in the frame of the video - hair a little longer than now but the same build, the same movements. She tore her eyes from the figure to check the date in the upper right corner of the video-feed and realized that this was quite a few years back. Another woman appears in the frame but doesn’t face the camera followed by a tall figure. Graces breath hitched - for a second she thought she was looking at herself but she shook her head and kept watching - that couldn’t be her. Only when the tall woman turned around, did Grace hit the space bar of the keyboard - hard - to stop the video. She was breathing fast now, her heart hammering inside her chest, her brain coming up with a thousand explanations of why someone looking exactly like her was with Daniela Ramos in 2022 - when she herself had just been a child then.

Latemer who was standing next to her, hit the button again and the video continued. 

All the figures do in this video, is walk out of the frame of the camera. 

A next video started and Grace recognized her face driving down a highway, being chased by someone - something. And this video was followed by another one and another one and another one. Grace felt paralyzed, glued to the chair, didn’t know how to move a muscle - even when with every single new frame and video she wanted to do nothing more than to stop it from going on. 

The phrase ‘It must be a fake’ was ringing her head, but she knew it took incredible effort to fake this much video material. ‘The guy also faked his own kidnapping so I guess he goes through a lot of trouble..’ she was trying to calm herself. But she kept staring at this woman, who had all her mannerisms, who was moving just like she moved but every now and then she could see that she didn’t have skin that broke like hers and was so much faster than Grace had ever been and she couldn’t stop the tiny voice in her head telling her ‘There really was someone out there back then - that looked just like me’. 

Her eyes closed on reflex when an explosion lit up the security camera feed and when her eyes opened again they caught sight of something at the top left of the screen, in small white letter she read “AA9-TF6-RSV-P87-K9O” and as if her brain thought it was funny the memory of a Dani on the phone line dictating her a CIA-file-number pops into her head and echoes. 

She pushed herself back as if burnt, almost tripping over the chair that fell over, putting distance between her and that computer - that video. Grace felt her entire body shake, hands cold as ice she tore her eyes away from the screen to Latemer.   
He had a randomly sympathetic look on his face and then he tilted his head and said with a calm voice “She made you forget. You poor thing. I promise I’ll tell you everything.” and because Grace still felt a little paralyzed she couldn’t get herself to push off his hand on her shoulder. “We’ll find common ground yet, Agent Erikson”. 

There was silence for a second and then a phone in Latemers pocket started to ring and he turned away from Grace. Grace couldn’t do anything but stare back at the screen, back at those numbers. ‘Either both of them are crazy or I am’ Grace thought and she barely caught Latemer instructing the two men to keep her upstairs until he returned the next day. They should allow her access to the videos but under no circumstances should they let her speak to Daniela Ramos. Then directed at her he said “When I’m back, I’ll explain” smiled at her and then he was gone. 

Grace heard a car taking off on a gravel path and she focused on that sound until she couldn’t hear it anymore. Just like that - she back in the reality of this room. She realized that none of those videos mattered. Whatever that man had against her or her potential look-alike or whatever he manufactured about her, wouldn’t change anything about the fact that she, Grace Erikson, an FBI-agent was currently kidnapped in a foreign country. Whether this was all a ploy to make her crazy or she actually was crazy wouldn’t make a difference if Latemer killed her, out of a whim. And then there was Dani. Even if she had something to do with this, Grace inexplicably didn’t want her to get hurt. She owed her her life for one, but really there was also something deeper in her soul, calling for her to protect this woman. 

Assessing the situation with fresh eyes, Grace had to stifle a sigh. The men that were currently watching her were carrying guns at the ready. Even if she could take one of them out and use his gun to kill the other, she would alert all of Latemers other men on the property and if she wanted to get Dani out from the basement she would need more time to get away.

So Grace flopped down on the seat in front of the computer and reluctantly pressed the play button, not watching the video though. Something would come up and give her the opportunity to flee soon enough. Patience was key now, she knew. She felt more like herself now than ever since she boarded the plane to Russia. All her training prepared her for this. She could save herself and Dani - she knew it! 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

The video reel must’ve restarted 3 times until finally something happened. A tall guy, with red cheeks from the cold barged in. He was speaking Russian to the other two and Grace understood enough to know that he didn’t want to stay in the cold anymore and apparently one of the two guys was his brother. Someone said something she didn’t understand and they all laughed. In the reflection of the computer screen Grace could make out what would turn out to be the last mistake that guy ever made in his life. A gun with a silencer. ‘Never bring a gun with a silencer.’ she thought and then, in one swift motion, pushed herself to her feet and across the room, faster than the men could drop their coffee mugs. She had his gun in her hand before the others had finished raising the barrels of theirs and the three men hit the floor with three thuds before any of them could pull the trigger. She pushed out a breath and kicked the weapons away from their hands. She searched their pockets for the keys to the basement and was opening the door a second later. 

She couldn’t make out much in the dark basement but she just called downstairs “Dani, if we want to get out of here - we should do it now” and then turned back to the room to peek through the blinds of the window next to the door. Dani was next to her in a flash. She stared at her, then at the dead guys, then at the computer screen, then back at Grace. “Let’s not..” Grace said and then walked past Dani to peek through the blinds on the back door of the room. 

“So there are more men out front where the cars are but in the back there’s nothing but the woods.” she stated, updating Dani while still looking out the back-window. When she turned around Dani was jamming a screwdriver into the side of the computer, forcing her way through the plastic cover of the PC. 

“What are you doing?” Grace asked confused. 

“I want to know how far Michael really got with his development. So I’m going to get all the information I can from this PC. Which means I need its hard drive” she explained patiently while still going to town on the computer. “Check if any of the guys have a phone on them.” she told Grace and Grace did. 

“This one.” Grace held it up and Dani took it immediately to examine it.

“Passcode protected. But the service is good. I’ll hardwire my way into it - upload the contents of this hard drive and send out a beacon with our location simultaneously. We won’t be able to use the phone other than that but that should do”

Grace stared at her, exasperated again but after a sigh she said “Fine - do it fast. If someone comes in we’re done for good.”

At that, Danis eyes turned apologetic and she slowly said “It’ll take at least 20 minutes.”

“Well, shit. You’ll have to do it in the car then.” Grace said, now impatience lacing her words. This ‘information gathering’ shit was getting on her nerves, let alone that it was hurting their chances to get out alive already. She was turning to search the guys for more useful stuff now when she heard “We’re not gonna take that car.” Dani said it matter of factly and Grace just looked at her like “What?!”

That is when Dani approached her, she was holding her hand before Grace could even register how close she was “This information that I’m trying to send to my people, is going to hopefully save humanity. If they know what’s coming, they can fight it” brown, imploring eyes were staring straight into Graces and Dani continued “If we go out that front door, there is a good chance we won’t make it to the car - sure if we get to the car our chances are good but I can’t risk that.” She paused for a second to take a deep breath “We sneak out the back. They don’t even realize we’re gone for a while and I can start the upload once we have cover in the woods. We’ll just keep going as far as we can. We’ll get somewhere eventually.” she said the last sentence silently. 

Grace knew what this meant. The woods could go on forever in this part of the world. Getting lost was easy, the cold was harsh, Latemers men had dogs so they could trail them wherever they went. There was nothing to indicate that they would find a street or a town out there in the middle of rural Russia, if they even were still in Russia. They could stumble through the woods for days, if they didn’t die of hypothermia or a bullet first.

“Why are you trying so hard to die?” Grace asked, eyes desperate and Dani realized that this Grace truly wasn’t the Grace from years ago.   
That Grace had already given up on her own life before she even made the time jump. The war, the killing, the pain - it had made her see herself as dispensable. 

This Grace on the other hand - she wanted to live. And it tore Danis heart in two that she was one who had to teach her Grace now, that any one life was dispensable in the service of humanity.

“I’m not trying to die and I certainly don’t want you to die. But I cannot let this information be lost. We need it - otherwise you’ll die anyways.” As she said it she couldn’t keep a tear from rolling down her cheek, the sickening image of Graces broken body in the ruins of the dam, flashing in front of her eyes.

Grace must’ve seen the truth in her words because she nodded, new resolution in the way she looked at Dani “We can make it this way too.” she stated simply. Then she gathered all of the weapons from the guys while Dani put the phone and the hard drive into a backpack. They took the guys jackets and boots to help against the cold as best as they could.

They slipped out the back door and reached the woods without anyone seeing them. The air was already cold against their cheeks and their hands ached holding the cold metal of the guns. After a while they stumbled upon a patrol but took them out silently. 

Dani was taking off the backpack then and was trying to zip open the compartment that held the hard drive with her shaking hands, when Grace stopped her by putting her hand on Danis. 

When Dani looked up, Grace had a roguish look on her face, almost youthfully rebellious and reckless, eager to live when she said “First - we run.” and then dragged Dani forward in a fast sprint through the woods. Dani saw Graces face in front of her minds eye for a long time, running through the woods. She recognized the will to live in them and couldn’t bring herself to completely stomp it out. She would start the upload when they were further away from the compound. 

They ran through the woods, sometimes fast and sometimes slower when the terrain got rougher. Grace kept them moving north - seeing as they didn’t know where they were, all they could do was settle on a direction and consequently go that way. Every now and then Grace would check the radio she took off of one of the guards, to see if it was still receiving. Until now nobody had reported that they escaped.

After about an hour Grace stopped in her tracks suddenly, and Dani collided with her solid back not expecting the sudden stop. Grace steadied her for a second and then held up a finger to signal for her to listen. 

“A river” she said then. She kept a hold on Danis hand and pulled her forward through the trees and towards the sound of the river. 

“This is good.” Grace said “We’ll walk in the river for a while. It will throw the dogs off our scent. It’ll take them a long time to find our trail again.”

Some part within Dani that hadn’t turned hard as stone in the past decade, recoiled at the thought of the icy river water but she nodded and then said “But first, I will start the upload. I have to take a break anyways. We don’t all have legs like that.” and she motioned to Grace, while she flopped down onto the frozen ground. Then she took out the phone and the hard drive and several wires that she worked on with a knife. 

Grace didn’t argue. When checking the radio she realized that they were too far away to receive the communications from the compound anymore. “They probably already started looking for us” she said and then “This is toast now.” and she threw the radio into the river. She then proceeded to walk into the opposite direction they would eventually take - after a while she took off her jacket and put it on a big piece of driftwood that she caught in the current of the river. She had no idea if that would throw the dogs off or not but here’s to trying. That jacket wouldn’t keep her from freezing eventually either, she thought and made her way back to Dani. 

It had taken Dani 15 minutes to start the transmission, which would take several hours to finish. It was only then that she looked up again “What happened to your jacket?”. 

“I’m hoping it’ll throw the dogs off.” Grace said casually. 

The river was awaiting them. The water would probably go to their knees at the deepest but the freezing temperatures would be the bigger problem. 

“Oye”, Dani called when Grace started walking. She turned around looking at her expectantly and Dani said sheepishly “Can you carry the backpack? I’m kind of afraid the water will touch it if I carry it.” Grace grinned a little at that, a teasing glint in her eyes and Dani couldn’t help but laugh a little while shaking her head, her height being the punchline of every joke Sarah made as well (well not every - one other punchline was standing right in front of now). Grace grabbed the backpack and then Danis hand and then continued on into the river. 

-|-|-|-|-|-|-

The icy water had first felt like it was tearing off their skin - now, 20 minutes in, their feet had grown numb and Dani was stumbling forward more than walking. Grace had caught her more than once from having a full body bath. Dani was cursing in spanish under her breath the entire time. When she almost slipped three times in a row, Grace decided that however far they had come in the river would have to do, to throw off the dogs because if Dani did fall into the river, the hypothermia they were both suffering from right now would feel like cuddly warmth. At that thought Grace pulled Dani towards herself and wrapped an arm around her waist, and pulled Danis arm around herself. Dani grew silent next to her and she could feel Danis fingers dig into her body in an attempt to hold herself close. Then Grace made a beeline towards the riverbed. After they climbed out, they dropped to the ground together. 

“I can’t tell if it’s gonna be colder or warmer if I take off these shoes now.” Dani said through chattering teeth but Grace didn’t give her much time to contemplate because she pulled her to her feet again and then wrapped her arms around her. Dani let out a surprised sound, her breath catching in her throat. She had never hugged Grace all those years ago. She wished so often that she had - she had carried her and slept with her head on her legs but she never got around to hugging her. And even if this was obviously just to exchange body heat, and the person in front of her was Grace but also not Grace, she couldn’t breathe from the heaviness of the moment. 

Grace must’ve felt her stiffen but when she made to pull away Dani wrapped her arms around her and pulled her close again. She wouldn’t pass up her chance this time! The warmth that seeped through her coat made her shiver and she felt that familiar lightness again, from knowing that Grace still lives in this reality. She had done something right during all her years of fighting - now she just had to keep it that way. 

After a long while Grace pulled away and said that they needed to keep moving. It was almost night-fall and the wind had picked up during the past minutes, coming from the south now. It would work in their favor. The dogs at least wouldn’t catch their scent through the wind.

They kept moving, with less and less visibility as darkness descended over the woods.

Grace hated the sounds that came from the darkness in the woods. Was it a tree branch crushed by a boot or just an ominous sound from a dead tree in the wind. And her pulse picked up tenfold everytime the wind became stronger. What sounded like wind, could also sound like dogs howling. Were they already on their trail? After or before the river? Are they just going to starve in the eternal russian woods? They probably would freeze first, right? How long should they walk before the exhaustion forces them to stop? Will anyone find their bodies?

Dani didn’t mind the sounds, Grace found out. Everytime she pointed one out, the older woman would just tell her exactly what it was. Something about being with a friend often, that lives in the woods.

When the particularly loud snapping of branches came from the front, Grace was about to make a comment about what exactly that could be but before could make more than one sound, Danis cold hand was covering her mouth and pulling her down into a crouch. The shorter woman whispered in her ear “THAT is a person.”. Grace couldn’t help but shiver. 

They both readied their weapons but they could only see for a few metres because the light of the crescent moon didn’t allow for more. 

Then to their surprise they heard a voice call out timidly “Hello? International pick-up? Hello? I am here for an international pickup? Your company booked me. If you can hear me, can you come to me? These woods are really scary.” The voice whined that last part. The footsteps came closer and closer until finally they could make out that the voice belonged to a scrawny looking teenager who was illuminated by his phone screen. “Hello? International pick-up?”. He didn’t see them crouching down not far from him so he let out a yelp and jumped, in Danis' opinion impressively high, when Grace cleared her throat to gain his attention. 

“Oh fuck - you scared me” he said but laughed a little. He turned on the flashlight of his phone and Dani could see him go pale at the sight of their weapons. Dani could already see him trying to run away so she trailed her gun on him “Don’t run away, please.” Dani said in a calming voice. He immediately put his hands up into the air and tears were forming in his eyes. But Grace had already pushed her hand down again with an angry “What the hell?”. 

Then Grace put her hands in the air and walked slowly towards the kid “We’re not going to hurt you! We don’t have these weapons to hurt anyone but we are being followed by people who want to hurt us so we have them to protect ourselves. I promise. We just want to get out of here.”

Dani could see that Grace was trying to connect with the kid, to explain to him what was happening so that he wasn’t afraid of them. Dani caught herself, thinking yet again, that this Grace, right here, wasn’t like the Grace back then. Back then she probably would just have threatened the kid for the keys and left him trembling there.

“How did you get here?” Grace asked “How did you know we would be here?”  
The kid had calmed a little, even though he still shot nervous glances in Danis direction every now and then.   
“I am the only taxi in a 100 km radius - I usually only take the children to school or old people from one town to the next but I also have an online order tool - my Dad thought it was stupid. But today someone ordered me to go here, to pick you up. I was looking for you for 3 hours now - but they said not to go unless I found you.”

In another uncharacteristic move Grace put her hand on the kids shoulder and sincerely said “Thank you, for doing that! That is very honorable of you” and then she continued “Where is your car?” 

“Right back here” he said, fear forgotten and he gestured for them to follow him. It was only five minutes to walk until they came across an old Toyota mini bus on a dirt road. 

When the car came into sight Grace looked at Dani and in her exhausted eyes there was a smile “We made it.” she whispered and Dani couldn’t help but return the smile.

**Author's Note:**

> You can come talk to me about Terminator: Dark Fate or this fanfic on imhereforthetvshows.tumblr.com or in the comments here


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